


Genetic Sexual Attraction

by Exen44



Series: Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA) [1]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Cunnilingus, Daddy Kink, Drama, F/M, Fluff, I still don't know how tags work, Incest, Loss of Virginity, Oral Sex, Parent/Child Incest, Porn With Plot, Semi-Public Sex, Sex, Smut, Spanking, Speedster Sex, Vaginal Sex, Workplace Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-03-02 20:12:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 42,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18818158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Exen44/pseuds/Exen44
Summary: Genetic sexual attraction (GSA) is a concept in which an overwhelming sexual attraction may develop between close blood relatives who first meet as adults.Nora knew this. It was simple science. But rationalizing it with logic didn't lessen her attraction towards her father in any form or way. When she went to the past to spend time with the dad she never knew, this wasn't a side effect she'd considered, and now she was forced to deal with the consequences.





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: The tags are very self-explanatory. If this isn't your cup of tea, you might wanna shazam out of here.
> 
> I've had this one in the works for quite a while. I wrote more than half of it in a day, but then I kind of just forgot about it for a couple of months. I was itching to write something, so I decided to wrap this one up.

Her dad. Of all people, it had to be her dad. She remembered the stories her mom used to tell her when she was a kid, telling her how similar she and her dad were in virtually every way. Hearing that made her all the more excited to meet her long lost, or rather very long into the future lost, estranged father. Well, excited would be a massive understatement seeing as she ruptured the space-time continuum and traveled back in time, her neurons invigorated and set aflame by the Speed Force as she broke all the laws of the universe solely to spend time with her father. So yes, excited would very much be a massive understatement. Never in a million years could she have accounted for this happening. Making changes to the timeline and all that she had thought of, but this?

It didn’t start this way. In fact, in the beginning when all her encounters with him before he knew who she was, she didn’t have these thoughts in any capacity. It wasn’t until she catered at her parents wedding and saw him standing at the altar did she think to herself: ‘He looks so handsome in that tuxedo.’ She didn’t think much of it. A harmless observation. Or so she had thought. When she finally revealed herself to her parents and Team Flash, those feelings escalated. Slowly, but surely. The more time she spent with her dad the more her feelings for him grew exponentially. Their cute moments sharing their favorite dessert at the Mason Family Ice Cream Shop in Happy Harbor, Rhode Island. Their little sessions where he’d mentor her on the Speed Force or some other subject. Sitting on the couch with him on movie night as she snuggled up against him with the blanket draped over them.

All those adorable family activities all resulting in the one irrevocable and undeniable fact she’d been struggling with for a couple months now.

She was attracted to her dad.

I mean, come on! How could she not be? He was literally the picture-perfect man for her. Gentle, caring, strong, intelligent, kind, and countless of other positive traits she couldn’t even begin listing them all even if she was reciting them all at super speed. And his smile. That heartwarming, beautiful smile that graced his handsome face that completely melted her whenever directed so much in her direction. She had to look away or else risk her resolve breaking and recklessly throwing herself at him. He was good, through and through. Her mom used to tell her his heart was big enough to beat for all of Central City, and after all those missions spent with him she definitely believed it. How genuinely happy he was for people, while utterly broken whenever someone is wronged as if it had been a slight done to his own family.

He was perfect. And that was the fucking problem!

In fact, saying it was a problem was ALSO an understatement. She was beginning to blush whenever he so much as looked her way! This could not be happening. It was just a nightmare. That’s all it was. Some messed up, delicious nightmare. No! Not delicious. Bad. Very bad.

But yet so good.

She couldn’t will herself to want things to be any different than they currently were.

And here she was, lying on the couch of her parents’ house after a long day of catching metahumans with her head craned back and looking up at the ceiling, her thoughts inevitably drifting towards her dad as it always did. And those thoughts were becoming more and more dirty. She closed her eyes as she imagined what it would feel like to feel her dad’s hard, throbbing cock ramming in and out of her wet virgin pussy as she quivered helplessly beneath him while he claimed her and made her is. She wondered what kind of lover he was. Would he be gentle, or rough? Dominant, or submissive? She figured he was probably the gentle kind with everything she knew about him, but a hidden part of her hoped he’d be rough.

Growing up without a father figure for most of her life had left her with some questionable sexual preferences. And she wasn’t even talking about being bisexual. No, she was referring to her desire to be dominated, her body made subservient to whoever had the willpower and the strength to make her theirs. A direct result of the first ever porn video she watched being of that nature. Something about it appealed to her. Appealed to some hidden, primal urge deep inside her, kept under lock and key. And she wasn’t bothered by it. A part of her felt like she should be ashamed of having those urges. After all her mother was a feminist and thus she grew up with the principles that women and men should be equal, which she agreed with.

But in the bedroom, she didn’t want to be the strong, independent woman she was out in the real world. She wanted to be dominated, to be taken in whatever way the person doing it wanted to. She wanted to be at the mercy of his every whim. And she wanted her father to be the one doing it.

In the midst of her thoughts she’d failed to notice that her hand had instinctively slithered down her panties and was currently brushing up against her now wet pussy. She didn’t have the desire to stop, so she didn’t. She had a very different desire at that moment. She tilted her head back against the armrest of the couch as her hand moved like it had a mind of its own, surrendering herself to the pleasure. Her mind turned to a haze, and all she could feel were the intoxicating sensation of her fingers pumping in and out of her. She skipped the foreplay entirely. Right now, she just needed to be filled.

WOOSH.

Time crawled to a halt at the sound of someone exiting the Speed Force, and her eyes shot wide open. Instinctively she withdrew her hand and covered herself with a nearby blanket in an instant. She’d never moved so fast in her entire life. She looked up towards where the sound came from and there stood the center of her thoughts. Luckily, he didn’t seem to be at all the wiser to what she’d been doing, as his back was turned to her while he hung up his coat on a nearby hanger. “I’m home!” She sat up straight, crossing her legs.

Shit.

With how horny she was now, her resistance to the already overwhelmingly magnetic attraction towards her father was now rapidly crumbling. She was hanging on by a tattered thread. “H-Hey!” She cringed internally at how pathetic she sounded. “Welcome home!” She practically melted as he turned around and cast one of his signature charming smiles her way. She was in trouble.

“Hey yourself. What are you doing?”

His voice. Fuck, she’d forgotten how goddamn angelic his voice was. The perfect mixture of a coarse roughness mixed in with a soft, gentle hum. Wait, he was staring at her. She’d been too busy fawning over him to notice she hadn’t responded to his question. He quirked his eyebrow inquisitively in a silent question. “I was just umm.. watching the TV.” She was bumbling. Fan-fucking-tastic. Thankfully she was naturally quirky all the time, so he didn’t seem to notice. He looked to the side and she followed his gaze to the TV. It was turned off.

Shit.

“With the TV turned off?” The corners of his lips quirked upwards in an amused smile. He SERIOUSLY needs to stop doing that. The butterflies in her stomach were about ready to burst out of her like one of those Chestburster aliens from that really old movie she saw one time. Boy, that movie really gave her nightmares.

“Well I said **was,** didn’t I?” She mentally patted herself on the back for the quick rescue she came up with. She wasn’t sure where she inherited her poignant wit, but she’s pretty sure it wasn’t from her parents. He grinned at her sassy remark.

Oh, come on! It’s like he was doing this to her on purpose!

She subconsciously rubbed her thighs together, eager to scratch the itch between her legs. At that moment she’d been glad she had thrown on the blanket.

“Sorry, I must’ve missed it. I started blocking out most of what you say since you gave me that thirty-paragraph apology speech way back for dropping ice cream in my lap.” He shot another shit-eating, cheeky grin at her.

Oh, that cheeky..

Try as she might, she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. I guess she did inherit her wit from one of her parents. “If you weren’t standing all the way over there I’d be slapping you right now.” He chuckled as he suddenly walked over and plopped himself down on the couch beside her. Wait, that’s not what she wanted. This is the opposite of what she wanted. She shifted back a bit on the couch, pretending to make herself more comfortable while in reality she was just trying to put as much distance between them as possible. Every centimeter counted towards her resolve. She risked a glance his way and realized he was looking at her strangely. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I was just wondering if you were feeling alright. Your face looks a little flushed.” His brows narrowed in genuine concern. Damn him. He was too goddamn caring. Suddenly his expression morphed back into one of amusement. “Maybe you’re just ashamed of how easily I embarrassed you just then.” Alright, she took it back. She slapped him playfully on the arm, and he feigned hurt, clutching his arm like he’d been struck by a bullet. “Ow! If you’d have hit me any harder not even my speed healing could’ve fixed it.” She rolled her eyes, shaking her head in amusement as she desperately tried to keep the smile threatening to cover her entire face at bay. Again, she failed.

“Oh ha-ha, very funny, dad.” She turned to face her body towards the television instead of him. She needed every flimsy barrier she could put between them if she was going to make it through this.

“I’m serious! You better kiss it to make it alright.” He looked at her, amusement evident in the twinkle of his eyes and the curve of his smile. Her smile dropped. His little joke was enough for her thoughts to drift towards impure thoughts, of her kissing something entirely else to ‘make it alright’. He seemed to notice, as he too stopped smiling, much to both her relief and disappointment. She felt a shiver down her spine as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she had to stop herself from trembling under his touch. “Hey, you okay?”

This was a dangerous path to go down. She had to change the topic. She turned to look at him and forced a smile onto her face, nodding in assurance with an eagerness she definitely wasn’t feeling. “Yep! Sorry, got lost in thought.” She needed to get away from him. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could make it.

He nodded slowly a couple times. He didn’t look too convinced, but at least he wasn’t pressing the matter. “Alright.” She let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

Crisis averted.

“Hey, I’m going to make us some popcorn and then we can watch that movie you wanted to see the other day. How’s that sound?”

Crisis NOT averted.

She opened her mouth to say no, but then she saw the smile on his face, and she couldn’t bring herself to say no to him. She closed her mouth shut and simply nodded with a smile, not trusting her words at that moment. His smile widened in turn, making it all the brighter. It warmed her heart. She looked away as he got up and made his way to the kitchen without the use of his superspeed.

Shit. This was bad. This was really bad. Okay, strategy. She needed a strategy. Her mind went into overdrive as her brain travelled at inhuman speeds as it scoured the reaches of her mind for any solution to her current predicament. She came up empty. She wasn’t sure whether she genuinely couldn’t think of a plan, or deep down she just didn’t want to think of one. No, that’s a dangerous line of thought. He could never know about how she felt. It would ruin everything. And yet, that selfish part of her wanted to throw caution to the wind and forget about the consequences. She wanted him. Badly.

Oh God, now she was starting to try and rationalize that this is somehow okay. It blatantly wasn’t. She shut down that line of thought in its tracks and started scouring through the wide array of movies in search of the one she’d been wanting to watch. Then it clicked in her head. That’s it! She just needed to distract herself the best she could at every opportunity. Not much of a plan, but it was better than not having any idea of what to do at all. She took a deep breath, now reassured. That reassurance immediately got vaporized as he saw her walking over to join her again with a bowl of popcorn in hand and a smile on his face.

She was fucked.

-

They were more than an hour into the movie now and she had not the faintest clue as to what the movie was about. All she could focus on were the butterflies in her stomach, the aching feeling in her crotch, and the man next to her that was the reason for both those feelings. Her dad on the other hand seemed completely enraptured by the movie and didn’t seem to have a care in the world, devouring one handful of popcorn after the next.

This was torture. There she was, snuggled up against her father’s chest with the blanket wrapped snugly around the both of them, and all she could think about was having sex with him right there and then. She had to pinch herself to make sure it was real, and unfortunately it was. Her resistance and resolve were turning to ashes like the building in the movie, and she was too frozen in place to even excuse herself or anything of the sort to get away. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She couldn’t leave, and she couldn’t stay.

And she couldn’t stop herself anymore.

Her body moved with a will on its own, and before she knew it she was greedily attacking his lips with hers. Soft. So soft. Her eyes were shut as she savored the taste of his lips while she still could. Somewhere in the distant reaches of her mind she could hear the muffled sound of the bowl of popcorn hitting the ground, and she could almost sense his arms hovering on either side of her, unsure of what to do. She took advantage of his indecisiveness, her tongue darting out to brush against his lips, begging for entrance. That was where he drew the line. She sucked in a sharp breath as he pulled her back, his big, strong hands gripping her slender arms. Hesitantly, her eyes flickered open to face the consequences of her actions.

Shock. His expression was one of shock. He was looking at her confused, panting heavily for breath just as she was as he seemed to struggle to find the right words. She didn’t have the right words either. All she could do was stare into the deep, bottomless blue of his captivating eyes, and wait for what felt like an eternity until he finally broke the silence. “Nora, what are you- “. She brought her lips crashing back down against his, cutting him off. She couldn’t bear to hear him reject her. She just couldn’t. This time he didn’t stop her, and it filled the sunken hopeless pit in her stomach with hope. He didn’t kiss her back, but he didn’t stop her. She knew it couldn’t keep going like this. She had to know.

She reluctantly parted her lips from his, and she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes this time around as she simply leaned her forehead against his, her lips just a breath away from his. She whispered against his lips, and nearly flinched at the desperation in her voice. “Please.. Please..” She lightly brushed her top lip against his bottom one, her heart beating so hard in her chest she could hear it through the blood pumping in her ears. “I need this.. I need you. Please take me. I’m sorry. Please take me.” She mumbled desperately as she planted small, soft kisses on his lips in between her words.

She stopped. She felt tears start to well in her eyes. “I’m sorry.” She’d ruined everything. All because she couldn’t contain her own fucked up desires. No more trips to Rhode Island for two scoops of cookie dough ice cream with extra sprinkles. No more movie nights. No more nothing. She’d be surprised if he ever even talked to her again. If he’d ever even want to have a child after this. Maybe she wouldn’t even be born. All because of one, unbelievably stupid mist-..

Suddenly her line of thought was completely cut off as she felt his lips come crashing down against hers, hungrily devouring her mouth with an aggressive intensity that made her entire mind go completely blank. She felt his tongue prodding against her mouth, demanding entrance, and her lips parted to happily oblige his command. Incredible. It felt incredible. He was such a good kisser. Suddenly she found herself leaning flat on her back on the couch while her assailant hovered only a few inches above her, exploring every crevice of her mouth with his skillful tongue, and she shivered at the thought of what else his tongue could do. She wouldn’t even part their lips for air even if she could, and apparently neither would Barry. He’d completely assumed control. She was at his mercy, and it thrilled her to her very core.

She felt his hand loop around her right leg and hoist it up to his side, to which she instinctively curled her leg around him, pulling him close. As close as their physical bodies would allow. She was panting against his mouth in arousal, her pussy unbelievably wet as a result of his efforts. It wasn’t enough. She needed more. She needed to feel him. There were far too many layers of clothing separating them. And apparently he was in agreement. He pulled back, hoisting himself up on his forearms, and she whimpered as their lips parted. Only then did she realize just how deprived of oxygen she had been as she gasped for breath, her chest heaving with every inhale and exhale.

She watched with immense interest as he pulled off his sweater and tossed it to the curb, revealing the well-defined muscles stretching beneath his fair skin. And she thought she couldn’t possibly be more aroused. Before she could think any more of it he was once again attacking her mouth with his. She tilted her head slightly to the side and parted her lips further to allow his tongue better access as her small, slender hands slid down his muscular chest until hitting the roadblock that was his pants. She desperately pulled and tugged at his belt as she tried to unclasp it from his jeans all without removing her lips from his. She thanked whatever God might exist that she managed it without issue. She blindly tossed it to the side, and she was pretty sure she might’ve knocked over a vase, but for the life of her she couldn’t care less at that moment.

 She unbuttoned his jeans the best she could while he shifted his attention to her neck, nibbling at it with soft kisses. She let out a soft moan from his ministrations before slipping her hand into the now open space of his jeans, slipping them down to his thighs but not much further due to the restrictions of her current predicament. He quickly fixed the problem as he pulled back and slid it down the rest of the way and past his ankles, kicking them off. While he did that, she began solving the problem of her own clothing, pulling at the bottom hem of her tight-fitting t-shirt and sliding it up and over her head, revealing her youthful plump, perky breasts. She blushed as she looked up at him to see him staring at her with a ferocious intensity, his gaze flicking in between her eyes and breasts. The lust she saw in his eyes was enough to make her shiver in need.

Now they were down to her jeans and panties, and the one layer of clothing still attached to her father’s lanky, muscular frame – his boxers. It was at that moment it dawned on her. This was really happening. Finally, it was happening. A part of her thought that if it ever happened she’d feel that nagging feeling telling her it was wrong. But she didn’t. It felt right. Like she was born for this. She blushed at the implication, and her need throbbed at the forbidden nature of it. She wanted this. She wanted this with every fiber of her being, and to damn with the consequences.

She let out a shaky breath as he leaned back down and started kissing his way along her neck and down the smooth ebony skin of her body, stopping for only a moment at her breasts to draw one of her nipples into her mouth, giving it a delicate suction that brought a coarse moan from her mouth. She leaned her head back against the couch and closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of his soft lips kissing their way down until reaching her jeans. He slipped his hands into either side of her pants and began to slide them down her thighs, following up with a kiss to every inch of skin revealed to him. For someone who was moving at super speed all the time, the slowness of his actions was simultaneously killing her and thrilling her. “Dad, please..”

Maybe it was the use of the word ‘dad’ or just the hushed request in general, but the words seemed to hasten his actions as he ceased to line her bodies with kisses in exchange for pulling back and hastily shuffling her jeans the rest of the way down her legs, temporarily being caught around her ankles and she heard him curse under his breath, to which she giggled in amusement. The moment the evil restraints that were her pants were tossed aside he lunged back in and captured her lips with his like a fish out of water. She wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer against her if it was even possible, the sensation of her bare breasts pressed up against his muscular chest enough to send shivers of desire coursing through her body.

She felt his progressively hardening length press up against her between her legs through the fabric of his boxers and she couldn’t wait any longer. She gently pushed a flat palm against his chest to try and create space between them, tilting her chin back to break the kiss. Catching onto her silent request, he pulled back and looked at her in the eyes, and she returned his gaze. She could have sworn the whole world revolved around them in that moment. All there was, all that existed in that moment was the two of them. She maintained eye contact as she slid her hands down to tug at the string of her panties, lifting her hips up just enough to let her wiggle them down her thighs and off her legs. She then reached for his boxers and wrapped her slender fingers around the hem of it, and he suddenly grabbed her wrist to stop her.

He looked at her with a strange glint in his eyes. As if silently asking if she was sure that this is what she wanted. She nodded twice in quick succession in reassurance, smiling brightly. He loosened his grip on her wrist and she slid his boxers down as far as she could with the limited wiggle room, his throbbing length springing free from its confines and slapping up against her inner thigh. She gasped as she felt it against her, unobstructed by any layer of clothing. They continued to gaze into each other’s eyes as she reached down and wrapped her slender fingers around his thick member, her small hand unable to wrap completely around its impressive girth. Slowly, she guided it against her entrance, already slick with her overflowing juices, and gasped as the head of his cock pushed inside her.

It was inside her. Finally. It was finally inside her. It felt better than she could have possibly imagined. She cradled her legs around his lower back and slowly nudged him further inside her with her feet, moaning as inch after inch fluidly slid inside her until it hit her hymen, obstructing his glorious length from going any further inside her. She could see the concern in his eyes, and she smiled weakly up at him in an attempt to reassure him, too distracted to do any more than that. “Do it, daddy. Claim me.” She practically moaned out, her tone sensuous. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind. This is what she wanted, with every fiber of her being.

She sucked in a sharp breath of air as he pushed forward and tore through her hymen, wincing at the stinging pain that was almost completely overshadowed by the feeling of pleasure that accompanied it. He came to a halt once more, as if to give her some respite and opportunity to adjust to his size. But she had no intention of taking this slowly. “K-Keep going..” She moaned out under her breath, and it seemed he was only too happy to oblige her request as he instantly sheathed almost his entire cock inside her in one swift motion, her eyes nearly rolling back into her head as the head of his enormous cock bumped up against her cervix.

_‘So big.. So good.. So full..’_

It was all she could think as her father began to pump in and out of her wet cunt, her pussy stretching to accommodate the massive length of his cock every time he thrust back into her. Soon the pain became nothing but a distant memory, consumed by pleasure and gratification as he progressively began to speed up his thrusts after meeting no objection. She simply nodded frantically her approval at his questioning look while gripping his hand to place onto her breasts to further cement her consent which he squeezed almost possessively – much to her delight as a coarse moan escaped her throat from the relatively rough treatment.

This was better than she could’ve possibly imagined.  She was practically overjoyed as she lost herself to the pleasure, her pussy squeezing his cock tightly as it struggled against its intruder while her legs subconsciously urged him on as she nudged him forward with every thrust he made. “Faster.. Fuck me..” She muttered out, her breath hitching in her chest as he drove his cock into her once more with a rough shove of his hips. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck and cradled her free leg around his lower back to join the other to hang on for support as he hastened his efforts, his hands sliding down from her breasts to grab either side of her narrow waist before continuing to drive his cock into her even faster and harder than before.

Her head dropped back against the couch beneath her as she got lost in the haze of her mind, overwhelmed with pleasure as she simply allowed herself to enjoy every sensation coursing through her body, savoring it as she was brought closer and closer to the brink of orgasm. She never wanted it to end, yet at the same time she craved release more than anything, and she began to subconsciously drive her hips back in sync to meet his thrusts.

All too soon she found herself nearing the edge, and by the looks of it so was he. “Nora, I’m going to..” She quickly tugged down at her father’s neck to bring his lips down to hers so she could latch onto them – her eyes closing shut as she tilted her head to allow him easier access to her mouth. She felt his hips begin to speed up as he prepared to cum, and she thought she even heard a spark from the Speed Force fizzle around them, although her pleasure-addled mind practically blocked it out. She was driven by need, and right now she needed it inside her. She felt him begin to withdraw from her to pull out in time, but she instinctively tightened her grip around his lower back with her legs and pulled him close.

By the time he got a chance to react it was too late, and she felt him spill inside her which drove her over the edge, her thighs spasming and shuddering under the weight of the earth-shattering climax that rocked through her entire body, accentuated by a loud moan. She’d never came so hard in her life.

Slowly her euphoria began to dissipate, and she was left with anxiety, and consequences. She opened her eyes to look up at him, and the horror-stricken look she saw on his face had her heart sinking in her chest. She knew what that look was. It was regret, and shame. She opened her mouth to speak as he pulled back. “Dad, I-..”

WOOSH.

She blinked after she felt a gust of wind in her face and he was gone, along with his clothes. Her eyes began to tear up, and she dipped her head down as she pulled her knees up to her chest and held them against her.

What had she done?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah. That's that. This turned out to be a lot more 'romantic' to begin with then I intended, but in the end it fit in well with the theme of the story. I wanted it to be more loving and sweet for her first time, nothing too dirty. Future chapters however would be a lot more smutty, and the sex scenes would be longer.
> 
> If you'd be interested in me continuing this story, do let me know. I can't say when I'd get around to it, as I basically write these things on a whim when I have the time.
> 
> Side Note: Everything here is subject to change, and might be edited.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place in between S05E11 and S05E12. I took some liberties with the timing of events for the sake of the plot, but spoilers if you've not seen it.
> 
> Anyway, now that the story is being continued and there's going to be some semblance of plot being incorporated, there's a few things that need to be changed as it now intersects with the canon timeline. What's always annoyed me, as I'm sure has annoyed many people watching The Flash is the brazen plot holes and them asking us to suspend our disbelief at the non-sensical things happening on-screen. Because of this, I'll be making some changes to how things work.
> 
> 1\. The Flash isn't incompotent and his speed doesn't fluctuate to fit the demand of the plot, along with him not being beat by people he could literally destroy before they bat an eye.
> 
> 2\. Any villain that managed to beat the Flash without having appropriate superpowers that could counter him like teleportation/super speed/getting hit makes them more powerful -- simply did not happen. All the times where they manage to defeat the Flash by punching him while he's moving at super sonic speed, gone. That includes the villains that managed to escape with a five second head start. Basically I'm employing common sense, because it's severely lacking in this show. As for the Thinker, I'm just going to pretend that the Thinker's plans actually accounted for the Flash's speed because it really didn't.
> 
> 3\. Killer Frost's whole 'sub-zero temperature counteracts speed' will only count against the Flash or any other speedster during their early 'notsofast' period of their lives. Since the Flash can basically move a hair under lightspeed currently in the series, that shit just wouldn't make sense to affect him anymore. For example when Barry came out of the speedforce in season 4 and got incapacitated by Killer Frost, I'm going to say that either didn't happen, or he just fizzled out and fell unconscious from the overload, or she somehow got extremely lucky by blasting the general area.
> 
> 4\. Speedsters like Kid Flash, Earth 2 Flash, Jesse, or even XS (Nora) can't keep up with him anymore if he's actually trying. Obviously Barry needs to dampen his speed 99% of the time so he doesn't fucking rupture the sound barrier and destroy the entire environment, so then they could keep up with him. XS is somewhat of an exception due to her ability to reverse time when she runs, but other than that, basically nobody can go as fast as him. There's a lot of instances in the show where they allude and prove this, yet still they tone it down whenever the plot demands it. I mean come on, he outran a nuke for longer than the other speedsters, ran to China and back in about 3 seconds, outran lightning, and in the beginning of Season 4 they literally said that nobody had ran as fast he was in that moment.
> 
> 5\. The whole season 3 arc of needing Wally to go faster than him -- didn't happen. It was unbelievably dumb, and made no sense as they stated multiple times in the past season before that Barry's top speed was like 13+ Mach, yet they bumped it down to Mach 3 for plot convenience in season 3 so that Wally could top him. Everything else went pretty much the same.
> 
> 6\. Last but not least, and what's the most relevant change to the story, is the Cicada arc. I wasn't sure how I was going to go about changing it, as the Flash could easily run up to him and incapacitate him before he could even get the chance to activate the dagger, but I've decided to go the route of changing the dagger's properties. More specifically, the dagger is perhaps instantaneous, and doesn't need to be powered by the user. Plot hole solved.
> 
> I'm probably forgetting something, but with a show that has as many plot holes as this one, it's bound to happen. For those wondering, I'm not forgetting about the fact that them moving at super speed without their suit should disintegrate their clothes. I'm simply ignoring it for the time being because I don't know how to go about fixing it. Obviously most of these changes don't effect the story much, but I feel like it needed to be stated going forward. Sorry for the long list. 
> 
> With that said, let's get into the story.

Exhausted. That’s one word he could use to describe his current state. Ever since what happened with Nora, he’d been running himself ragged. Literally, running. He’d doubled down on minor crimes in Central City, and voluntarily taken on some extra paperwork at CCPD just to avoid thinking about what he´d done. What he’d done to Iris, himself, and most importantly Nora. He briskly shook his head to shake his line of thought as he slowly strode over to the crime scene ahead while fumbling to put on the black latex gloves. The sirens of the nearby police cars rung consistently in his ears, and he tiredly ran an open palm down his face, stopping half-way to clasp his thumb and middle finger around the bridge of his nose as his eyes shut closed for a moment of respite.

He inhaled deeply as he straightened up his posture, his eyes opening and his hand dropping to his side as he tiredly scanned the alley around him. He couldn’t remember when he’d last slept. He wasn’t sure he even had. He’d been relying on the Speedforce in his system to keep him awake, but he’d practically exhausted that option. He closed his eyes as hard as he could for a moment before opening them again in an attempt to quell the tired ache in his eyes. Now wasn’t the time for napping. He’d heard the call come through at work as he was intentionally taking his sweet time with the last of the paperwork instead of using his speed. He needed to keep his mind constantly occupied or risk his thoughts wandering in less than pure directions.

He sighed and pushed past a couple of police officers who were already on the scene, the familiar sight of the yellow tape he’d grown used to seeing a hundred times by now encompassing the area. His eyes widened as his eyes landed on the subject of his thoughts on the other side of the yellow tape. Nora.

Shit.

He knew he couldn’t avoid her forever, but he just couldn’t bring himself to look into those big brown doe eyes of hers that were so reminiscent of Iris’. He could almost see the betrayal Iris would feel reflected in his daughter’s eyes.

His daughter.

He had to remind himself of that very important fact. She was his daughter. As of recent he had a hard time thinking of her as solely his daughter. Now when he looked at her he saw an attractive young woman who..

He briskly shook his head once more. ‘Best not to finish that line of thought,’ he thought to himself. She was his daughter. He shouldn’t be thinking of her that way. Or in anyway apart from a father’s perspective. Yet as he was now faced with her standing only a short ways away from him, he couldn’t help but see her in a completely different light than he should.

His inner dialogue with himself was silenced as he saw her take notice of him and visibly perk up at the sight of him, her eyes hopeful as a bright smile crept up onto the corners of her lips. He instinctively gave her a sad, forced smile before averting his gaze, and he swore he could feel her despair as if it was his own. It was killing him. He kept his eyes set firmly on the ground as he bent under the yellow tape and entered the quarantined crime scene, his gaze settling on the deceased’s body draped over with a yellow cover. He hesitantly looked up at the sound of footsteps approaching and his heart lurched as Nora approached him, the hopeful look on her face now replaced with one of bitter melancholy.

He took a deep breath as she moved over next to him, her thumbs twiddling nervously as she looked down at the ground. “Hey, do you think we could tal-..” He quickly cut her off as he’d done several times before now to give her his rehearsed reply. “Not now, Nora. We’ll talk-..” This time it was her that cut him off, her voice low and pensive. “Later. Yeah, I know..” He sighed as she averted her gaze and crouched down to look over the body, her hand reaching over for the edge of the cover before pulling it back to unveil their John Doe.

He opened his mouth for a moment to apologize, almost reflexively, but quickly shut it when he realized there was nothing he could say. Especially not here. They just needed to get this out of the way. He lowered himself into a similar crouch next to her and tilted his head to the side to get a better look at his face. Some bruises, a split lip, but not much else. He narrowed his eyes as he did a double take to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, and internally berated himself for missing the most obvious wound there was. God, he really needed to get some sleep.

“He’s got a lot of incised wounds on his body..” He heard Nora mutter quietly under her breath, and he sighed at what their relationship had been reduced to. They couldn’t even communicate with one another anymore. He knew that was entirely his fault, but at the same time he needed time to deal with everything. He quickly blinked a few times in rapid succession, the bags under his eyes weighing heavily on his features. “He’s got a depressed skull fracture which points to impact with hardened surface but cause of death is definitely repeated stabbings.” He more or less muttered out, his voice strained.  

He spared a glance in Nora’s direction to see her nod silently, her gaze still downcast. He sighed once more as he turned to look back at the body, and he squinted at the wound on his arm. He leaned over to examine it closer, extending his hand forward to pull the fabric further apart to inspect it. He’d definitely seen this sort of thing before. “Look at these wounds. Doesn’t it look like they have the same depth and diameter as the ones on Gridlock’s body?”

He turned to look at Nora to gauge her reaction, but she kept her eyes firmly glued to the body. “Yeah, and like Block’s and Raelene Sharp’s.” She replied quietly, confirming his suspicions. Cicada had struck again. He quickly pulled off his right glove as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, breathing out a quiet “Yeah..” as he stood up to ransack through his pocket. His heart skipped a beat as he saw the name attached to the message. Iris. He couldn’t even think about her name without being overwhelmed with tremendous guilt.

His eyes trailed down the screen to read the attached message as he saw Nora stand up from the peripheral of his vision. His brow furrowed in concentration as he absorbed the meaning of the text message, idly repeating it out loud for Nora to hear once he’d finished reading it. “Iris just got a tip..” he began, sparing a guilty glance towards Nora at the mention of her mother, only to see her avert her eyes to avoid his searching gaze before he continued, “Another meta-human was murdered in her apartment, same C.O.D.”

That seemed to get Nora’s attention as she perked up as realization dawned over her, subdued panic evident in the tone of her voice as she spoke. “Dad, these aren’t one offs.” He shook his head in agreement with her observation. “No,” he replied as he pocketed his phone, his gaze settling on the body in front of them. The first of many to come if they didn’t stop him.

“Cicada’s back and he’s on a killing spree.” He sighed at the truth in her words as he held back the impulse to mutter a curse under his breath. He needed to focus. Lives were at stake. “Okay, well, there’s got to be a lead in one of these attacks that can help us track him. We’ll get the team on it.” He looked briefly in Nora’s direction, worry evident on the expression on her face that made him want to engulf her in his arms and tell her everything was going to be alright. But he couldn’t do that. Instead he just looked back down on the body to absorb any information he might’ve missed before slipping off his other glove and turning around to leave.

He saw Nora look over at him almost questioningly, and he simply shook his head at her silent inquiry. Now wasn’t the time. They needed to stop Cicada before it was too late.

-

“Kira May, Dwayne Geist, Carl Bork..” He zoned back into the conversation as he heard Iris list off the victims that’d been found dead yesterday as they stood in the middle of the cortex in front of the monitors. He kept his gaze firmly set on the computers, the letters on the screen almost unreadable in the blur of his vision. He blinked a few more times, his shoulders slumping down as he became aware of the tension that’d built up in them after entering the room. He couldn’t even bring himself to look Iris in the eye when he walked into the cortex at the risk of breaking down and telling her everything if he did. Luckily, she didn’t seem to notice as she seemed absorbed with the whole Cicada thing.

“..All three metas who were killed by Cicada last night.” He nodded absentmindedly at the conversation taking place, perking up for a moment and looking up as Caitlin spoke while intentionally avoiding looking at Nora who stood only a couple feet away from him. “So, Cicada’s killed almost as many people in the last twelve hours as he has in the last eight months?” He glanced over his shoulder at the sound of footsteps, offering a soft nod in Sherloque’s direction as he walked in to join them. “And it doesn’t look like he’s slowing down anytime soon,” he heard Iris finish after Caitlin’s statement.

“Well we need to stop him before he hurts anyone else,” he added, finally speaking for the first time since walking in the room. “Sherloque, do you have any ideas on what to do about that..?” Nora said in trepidation as she entered the conversation, and he looked up to look over at Sherloque as he waited on his answer. “Not at the moment, but any time I run into a roadblock in an investigation I do what I always do. I just.. pursue a different avenue.” In any other situation he might’ve picked up on the hidden innuendo in Sherloque’s words, but with weariness taking its toll on him he completely blanked it as he waited for him to continue.

“We’ll find him. Something will bring him to us, something like--..” He looked up at the blinking lights at the sound of the alarm blaring, quirking a confused eyebrow as he looked to Iris when she leaned in to read the reason for the alarm off the monitor. “Satellites picking up dark matter flare. It’s him.” He took a deep breath as he willed his body to overcome its exhaustion. It was time.

“Something like that,” he heard Sherloque finish and he quickly spurred his legs into moving as he circled the desk to walk over towards his uniform.

“Suit up, we don’t have a lot of time.”

He wasn’t going to get away this time.

-

He came to an abrupt halt in the alley as he stopped utilizing the Speedforce, quickly letting go of Ralph before turning his body sideways and using the momentum to channel the remainder of his lightning to blast Cicada with it as he walked over to kill the bleeding woman on the floor – the impact and energy sending the man flying back into a nearby wall before hitting the ground with a thud. He straightened up his posture as he prepared to run at less than a moment’s notice should he need to. But he couldn’t risk Cicada dampening his powers, so he looked to Ralph with a nod as Cicada began to scramble up to his feet.

Ralph nodded quickly towards him before looking over to Cicada as he finished getting up to his feet, shouting one of his famous one-liners as he powered up his weapon and took aim. “Negate this!”

He clenched his fist tightly, his boot scraping against the ground to get into a better position as Ralph shot multiple blasts of energy into Cicada which caused him to stumble back into the wall. He looked to his left to see Killer Frost quickly following up with a blast of ice to both of Cicada’s arms, practically gluing him to the wall.

Good. He was incapacitated for now. He looked down at the wounded woman lying weakly on the ground as he saw Nora run over to help her. “Hold on,” he heard Nora say to the woman in a panicked voice before looking over her shoulder towards the group, “Help!”

He almost froze, and he decided to do the first thing his sleep-deprived mind could come up with. She needed medical attention. He turned to Killer Frost to voice his request. “We need Caitl-..” His sentence was cut short as he heard the sound of ice shattering, and by the time he looked over towards where Cicada was he was already plunging his dagger in the ground, releasing a shockwave of dark matter that sent him and everyone else flying back from the force of it. He groaned as the air got knocked out of him from the impact – sucking in a sharp breath as he struggled to raise himself onto all fours.

His eyes widened in fear as he heard the sound of Nora shouting, and he quickly looked up in time to see Cicada lifting her up in the air with one arm grasping her left one before winding the fist that held the dagger back to strike a blow.

“No!” He screamed in horror, watching helplessly as Cicada clenched his fist and slammed it into Nora’s back, a sickening crunch being heard as it made contact with her spine. He lunged up to his feet, purpose and worry reinvigorating his drained body while Killer Frost sent another surge of ice towards Cicada a second too late as he flew up into the air, avoiding the frost blast. He ran as quickly as his legs would carry him to crouch down beside Nora’s unconscious body, his heart beating faster than it ever had to the point he thought it might explode out of his chest. His vision narrowed, and all he could see was Nora’s face and her closed eyes.

“Nora! Hey, Nora, Nora? Nor—Nora??” He blurted out quickly as he panted heavily, putting his hand on her shoulder as his eyes instinctively looked her over for any other injuries besides the obvious before focusing his gaze back on her face. He shook his head rapidly, his gaze steering upwards as he desperately looked around in search of an answer to their predicament. Finally he felt the familiar feeling of the lightning coursing through his veins once more as his power returned, and without thinking he picked her up in his arms and sped off so quickly that the large gust of wind that accompanied his lunge forward as he ruptured the speed barrier shattered every nearby window and sent the nearby dumpsters flying away.

In less than a nanosecond, but what to him felt like an agonizing eternity he was in the medical bay of STAR Labs and putting Nora down on the bed.

“Help!” He shouted as loudly as he could, desperation evident in his voice and he stumbled back after a moment as everyone rushed into the room and pushed him aside to analyze her condition. He heard the sound of raised voices as they shouted something back and forth between one another, but it all faded from perception. He couldn’t hear anything except a loud ringing in his ears, and his own hyper breath. His eyes began to tear up as he looked at Nora’s blank face as her unmoving body lied on the table.

Not before long he felt his concern morph together with something else entirely. Anger. A rage so all-encompassing his entire body tensed as he clenched his fists, wanting nothing more than to crush every bone in Cicada’s body and drive his hand through his heart.

That monster had almost taken his daughter away from him. And he would pay.

But for now, he needed to look after Nora and make sure she was alright.

She had to be.

-

He sat hunched over in the chair at Nora’s bed, his face buried in his hands. Caitlin had just broken the news to him. Cicada has broken her back, bad – and because of the dark matter the dagger flooded her body with, her speed healing wouldn’t fix it until it left her system. He sighed into the palms of his hands; his eyes closed as he internally berated himself for being so stupid.

He should’ve just had Nora rush the woman to a hospital while he ran over to subdue and disarm Cicada. But instead, because of his own stupid mistake, he’d let his sleep deprivation affect his judgement – and Nora had paid the price for it. This was all his fault. She could’ve died if Cicada had instead plunged the dagger into her back instead of his fist, and it would’ve been his fault. His heart skipped a beat at the mere thought of Nora dying. He would never let that happen. No matter what. He couldn’t live without her in his life.

His bout of self-pity and anger was interrupted as he heard Iris breathe out his name. “Barry..” He looked up from his lap and reached over to clutch Iris’ hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze as he looked over at Nora’s face. She looked almost peaceful, lying there like an angel. “It’s okay, she’ll heal. It’ll be alright.” He said, trying more to convince himself than Iris.

His heart soared at the sound of Nora’s groaning as she came to, relief flooding over him in waves while Iris leaned closer. “Nora?”

“Oh.. What happened?” Nora muttered out questioningly in between labored breaths, her eyes still firmly closed as she moved her right hand up to touch the medical cradle that was wrapped around her neck. Iris looked down for a moment, presumably working out what to say. “Honey, um…” Nora let out a hoarse groan, her fingers brushing over the neck support still. “Oh, why does it hurt to breathe..?”

He breathed in quickly through his nose before finally speaking. “It’s gonna hurt for a little bit.” At that, her eyes opened slightly to look over at him, and he’d never been more relieved to see the brown of her eyes again. “Why..?” She muttered out softly. He opened his mouth to speak but stopped, his words catching in his chest as he pondered how best to break the news. “I can’t move my legs.. Um, why can’t I move my legs..?” He opened his mouth again to answer, but he was quickly cut off before he could speak as panic began to seep into the tone of her voice. “Mom, I can’t move my legs.”

“Nora..” Iris began to say before being cut off by Nora’s steadily raising voice. “Mom? Mom, why can’t I move my legs?” She said worriedly, her voice breaking before Iris spoke up.

“Nora, look..” She began, pausing for but a moment as she prepared to break the news to her. “..You can’t move your legs because.. Cicada broke your back.” The look of fear that washed over Nora’s face was enough to make his insides twist at the sight.

“What..? So I’m paralyzed?” She said, her voice hushed and full of despair. “What, forever?” He quickly shook his head to try and dissuade her fears, sitting up straighter in his chair as he replied. “No, no, not forever.”

“Well for how long then?” His heart lurched inside him as she looked at him in search for answers, and he hated that he couldn’t give them to her. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words escaped his throat. Iris was the first to answer. “We don’t know.” Tears began to well up in Nora’s eyes, and he couldn’t stop himself from doing the same. He wished he could help her, to fix it and make everything alright – but he couldn’t. He couldn’t do anything. He’d never felt more powerless in his life.

“Mom..” Iris placed a comforting hand on Nora’s shoulder, and he reached over to do the same to her hand, gripping her hand in his and swiping his thumb over the back of her hand in repeated strokes to try and comfort her.

Cicada would pay for what he’d done to her.

-

He tentatively raised his head from the ground beneath him as he felt the electricity coursing through his body once more, slowly looking over at his hand as he tried channeling the lightning once more and watching in surprise as it engulfed his arm – crackles of lightning flashing and echoing throughout the warehouse. He quickly rose to his feet, looking over towards where Killer Frost was holding Cicada’s dagger in mid-air with a continuous stream of her ice blast, realization dawning over him as he understood what had happened. She was dampening the dagger’s powers.

Killer Frost looked over her shoulder at him and shouted, the familiar synthetic echo of Caitlin’s other personality accompanying her voice as she spoke. “Give him hell, Flash!” He looked over at Cicada, the man that had killed dozens of innocent people, nearly killed Cisco, and worst of all – paralyzed his daughter. His Nora. His gaze narrowed onto him as everything else faded out of his perception, rage and electricity flooding his body, and he saw red. He inhaled deeply through his nose before speeding over towards him and ramming into him at superspeed, channeling the lightning in his body as he hit him again and again, every blow harder and faster than the last.

He felt bone and muscle cave in under the force of his blows, electricity charging through him and unleashing onto the monster that nearly took his daughter away from him. It was time to end this. He sped to a halt in front of Cicada, unconsciously blocking out the faint sound of Iris’ voice in his ear calling out his name. He waited for him to swing before channeling the Speedforce again, time crawling to a halt as Cicada froze in front of him, and he quickly wrapped around behind him, twisting his body around for extra momentum while coaxing the lightning in his body to power his blow as he drove his fist into Cicada’s back – just like he’d done to Nora.

He felt Cicada’s spine almost snap from the force of his punch, the familiar crack he’d heard from Nora once again resonating through his ears, bringing him immense satisfaction to have brought the man the same agony as he’d brought to his daughter. He stared at Cicada’s prone body, still frozen in place, and with a sharp inhale of air he walked over to finish him. “You’re never gonna hurt my daughter again!” He practically roared out before leaning down and grabbing Cicada by the collar with his left hand while channeling thousands of joules of energy in his right.

He wound back his hand to deliver the finishing blow when he heard a whoosh from someone’s Speedforce lightning coming to an abrupt stop, accompanied by the voice of the person who was in the center of his thoughts.

“Dad!”

He looked up at Nora, the red of his vision instantly disappearing at the sight of her, and the lightning fizzling out from his hand. “No.” It was all she needed to say to drag him back into reality, and he slowly let go of Cicada as he rose to his full height before beginning to walk over to engulf her in his arms when he heard a metallic hum behind him, and he looked over to see Cicada summoning the dagger to his hand and then flying off. He looked up at the hole he’d torn in the roof. “Oh, I’m sorry..” He turned around as he heard Nora’s angelic voice, relief washing over him to see her standing. “I let him get away.”

He shook his head, giving her a small smile. “No, you brought me back.” At that, he quickly walked over before wrapping his arms around her, holding her tightly against him as if she’d collapse into a million pieces if he let go. He shut eyes as he let out a deep breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, cradling Nora’s head against his chest as he simply stood there with her in his arms. Nothing else mattered.

Nothing but her.

-

“Okay, forty-seven tacos is officially my limit.” He chuckled at Nora’s remark as she practically doubled over in her chair while clutching her stomach, unable to stop the grin that engulfed his face. “I think that’s anyone’s limit, honey.” Iris jested, and the smile on his face grew even wider, threatening to permanently freeze in place. “A healing speedster’s gotta eat.” He said amusedly, his mood slightly deteriorating as he thought back to Nora’s injury. “Healed, dad. I’m fine.” She said reassuredly as she got up from her chair, her earlier signs of overeating completely gone as her speedster metabolism most likely burned right through it.

“I promise.” He smiled softly at her; concern still evident on his face. He sighed and looked down at his plate as she wrapped around behind him and briefly placed her hand on his shoulder as she walked by him, and he had to stop himself from leaning back into her touch. He looked over at her as she moved over to stand in the center of the room. “Hey, uh, dinner again tomorrow night?” She asked hopefully as she looked over at him in particular, and he knew that the question was aimed more towards him than Iris, as if asking for confirmation that it was alright.

“Yeah.” Iris replied, and as he made eye contact with Nora, he hesitated only for a moment before smiling and nodding in agreement. “Yeah. I’d like that.” Nora broke into a broad smile, and he reflexively did the same. He’d never been happier to see her smile. It somehow reassured him that everything was going to be alright. He quickly got up from his chair. “Nora? Um..” He trailed off as he saw the nervous look on her face, sparing a glance towards Iris as he realized he couldn’t say what he wanted to, and internally sighed as he returned his gaze to Nora while stuffing his hands in pockets. “I just… Just want you to know, how much we love you.” He hoped she’d understood what he was trying to say, that things were okay between them. And judging by the adorable smile that graced her lips, he’d guessed he’d gotten the message across.

He looked at Iris as she got up to stand beside him and placed a hand on his back, and he looked back at Nora to see her smile falter somewhat as she lowered her gaze to avoid his eyes before walking over and enveloping the two of them in a hug which he returned. He looked at Nora as she pulled back, and time seemed to slow down as they made eye contact for a brief moment before she turned and sped off at the speed of sound, followed by a resounding zap of her Speedforce lightning. He sighed as he watched her leave, wishing he could’ve had the chance to talk to her more. But it would have to wait until dinner tomorrow night.

“See? She’s back to her old self. And so are you.” Iris said softly, and his eyes trailed down towards the ground at her words. “No, I’m not. In fact, I don’t think I’ll ever be the same.” He knew the undeniable truth in his words as he said them. He’d never be the same. Nora had changed his life. Whether it was for the better, he wasn’t sure yet. All he knew is that he couldn’t live without her. She was everything to him, in more ways than one, and he couldn’t deny it anymore.

-

The day after dinner the other night had been a busy one. First he’d taken Iris and Nora ice skating, which the rest of the team more or less forced themselves in to join them, and then they’d gone home and played some scrabble and Pictionary before dinner. After finally stuffing down a few dozen slices of pizza, he sank into his chair much like Nora had done the day before and looked between the two most important people in his life at the table. “I think I might’ve overdone it a bit,” he jested, to which he saw Iris look at him with awe while Nora just smiled endearingly towards him. “It never ceases to amaze me how much you speedsters to eat. It’s a wonder we’ve any food left in the house.”

He chuckled softly in unison with Nora at Iris’ statement, before raising himself up in his chair lest he falls out of it, sitting up somewhat straight. “I’ll do a quick lap around the house to clean up in a bit and that ought to burn through everything I’ve eaten so far. Can have room for popcorn that way during the movie.” Nora giggled at his joke, and he smiled at how adorable she was. They shared a moment of eye contact before Nora downcast her gaze, and his own smile faded somewhat as a result. “Alright well don’t set the TV volume too high.” He turned to look over at Iris with a questioning look. “You’re not joining us?” Iris shook her head in response as she got up from her seat, stretching as she released an exaggerated yawn at which he rolled his eyes, smiling softly at her silliness.

“No, I’m exhausted. I’m going to go to bed. Feel free to join me once you’re done.” He bobbed an easy nod in acknowledgement as she walked around the other side of the table and placed a kiss on Nora’s forehead before walking over to him and placing another on his lips. “Don’t stay up too late. Don’t forget, the package Sherloque ordered that’s supposed to solve our Cicada problem should be arriving tomorrow.” He nodded once again and looked over his shoulder at Iris as she walked off and made her way upstairs before turning to face Nora who was still sitting at the table looking down at her hands while she awkwardly twiddled her thumbs. “Um, maybe we should just skip movie night tonight, dad. We can do it some other time.”

He knew what she really meant. She didn’t want things to be awkward between them. After all, last time they watched a movie together they made some.. questionable decisions. She was offering him a way out, but he didn’t want it. Things couldn’t go on like this forever. They needed to move past it, and they couldn’t just pretend it never happened.

He shook his head firmly as he stood up from his seat. “Nonsense. Go sit down and pick a movie. I’ll clean up, make some popcorn and then I’ll join you.” She looked up from her hands and over at him with a look of surprise, but it quickly changed to one of happiness and she hopped up to her feet enthusiastically before practically bouncing over to the TV. He shook his head at her childish antics, a smirk creeping up onto his lips in amusement. She was so utterly adorable it warmed his heart to see her retain some measure of innocence and childlike glee.

Following through on his earlier suggestion, he quickly sped around the house, disposing of garbage and leftovers as well as cleaning up the dirty plates littering the table before running over and putting some popcorn in the microwave. He slowed down to a halt and breathed in deeply through his nose as he heard the beep signaling the start of the timer. He glanced briefly over his shoulder at Nora who seemed to still be picking a movie before turning back around and hunching over the microwave. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say to her. That seemed to be a recurring theme in his life, not knowing what to say. Yet he’d always managed before. Although comparing his other situations to his current predicament wasn’t exactly a fair comparison. The other times had been a run in the park compared to this one.

He couldn’t lie to himself – he was attracted to his daughter.

He closed his eyes as he finally admitted to himself. It wasn’t exactly a hard leap to make. You don’t have sex with someone unless you’re attracted to them. But repeating it to himself made it real, cemented it as fact in his mind. The only question now was what he was going to do about it. He thought back to the time Nora first showed up at their doorsteps just after they’d defeated the Thinker. His first thought was to contemplate how unbelievably beautiful she was. It kind of surprised him that he thought that way. He’d never allowed himself to notice any other women, but that one in particular was somehow the one to slip past his moral compass.

For her to reveal immediately afterwards that she was his daughter from the future came as even more of a shock because of that, and he’d felt unbelievably guilty for having made that observation. However, he’d quickly scrapped the thought and moved past it. He had no way of knowing that it was his daughter, so no harm, no fowl. It wasn’t until the thoughts continued the more he got to know her that the guilt returned in full force. He’d tried to distract himself, of course. Rationalize it. Tell himself that it would pass. Yet the more time he spent with her, the more he came to realize that it wouldn’t.

The one saving grace he had was that Nora didn’t feel the same way, so he could stop himself from doing something he’d regret. But when she reciprocated those feelings, his resolve melted into nothing, and he’d recklessly acted on his own feelings. He couldn’t chalk it off to heat of the moment. There were plenty of times he could’ve stopped, said no – but he didn’t. He couldn’t. He didn’t want to. He wanted her, and damn the consequences.

The amount of times he’d made things worse with that line of thought was almost too many to count by now. Time and time again he’d thrown his own selfish desires ahead of other people’s well-being, and people still called him good. Flashpoint was by far the biggest offender in that regard. He told himself he would never let his own selfish urges get in the way again. But now here he was with Nora, and he was about a minute away from throwing caution to the wind and do what he wanted to do.

He shook his head, briefly focusing in on the hum of the microwave to ground himself. No, he couldn’t do that. No matter how much he wanted to. He’d have to tell her that. He opened eyes and inhaled deeply as he heard the beep of the microwave, and he quickly took it out and emptied it into a bowl before turning around and walking over to the living room. Plopping himself down on the couch, he placed the bowl of popcorn on the table in front of him and then looked to Nora as she put a movie in and walked over to set herself down next to him at a reasonable distance, considering.

“So, what are we watching?” He asked as casually as he could muster, looking to his left at Nora to direct his question at her. The moment she turned to look at him, and he saw her big brown doe eyes looking back at him with love and admiration, and that adorable smile of hers grace her perfect features, his earlier determination dissipated in a puff of smoke. “Well I--..” Before he could stop himself he quickly closed the distance between them and cut her off as his lips came crashing down onto hers, his eyes closing shut as he breathed in her perfume through his nose. He heard a quiet yelp of surprise from her as he kissed her, but it was immediately replaced with a content moan as he felt her lean into his touch and eagerly return the kiss, her petite hands coming to rest on his neck while his settled on either side of her waist.

Her soft lips tasted amazing, and he completely lost himself in the kiss, his hands coaxing her closer against him as he felt her press tightly against him. He could’ve gone on forever, but something about the kiss was almost familiar – he couldn’t quite wrap his finger around it. Suddenly it hit him. The kiss reminded him of Iris. That was enough to break the spell he’d been caught in, and he reluctantly broke the kiss and pulled away, his eyes opening to find themselves staring back into her searching gaze – her hot breath brushing against him as she gasped for air. He stared at her for a moment, his gaze flickering in between her eyes and lips until finally he tore his gaze off her and towards the TV.

Complete and utter silence filled the room, only broken by shallow breaths from the two of them – breaths so quiet you´d think they were scared to breathe. And that wasn’t too far from the truth. Finally, he heard Nora clear her throat and shift on the couch, and he saw her reach for the remote on the table out of the peripheral of his vision. “Maybe we should just watch the movie..” She muttered out as quietly as a scared mouse, and he idly nodded as he leaned back into the couch himself, his gaze fixed on the TV as he did his best not to look at her.

It went on like that for what felt like hours, an almost deafening silence despite the sound coming from the TV, and finally he couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed the remote and pointed it towards the TV and pressed pause before setting it back down on the table and turning to look at a confused Nora. He inhaled deeply in through his nose, mustering up the courage to speak before finally doing so. “I can’t take this anymore.” He said simply, and he saw her eyes drop down to her lap and her expression change to one of repressed sadness. “I should go then..” She made to get up, but he hastily reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, and she looked over at him with a perplexed expression – the tears that had begun to well in her eyes now visible to him.

“That’s not what I meant.” He said softly yet firmly, and her eyes furrowed further in confusion. “But I thought you--..”

“I know. So did I,” he said quickly, cutting her off, “But I changed my mind.” He saw the hopeful glint in her eyes, but also the trepidation to let herself feel that hope. She simply looked at him for answers, and he took another inhale of air before continuing. “When it first happened, I felt so guilty. Guilty for taking advantage of you, for betraying Iris, for being a bad father. I was ashamed of myself. I’d resigned myself to never acting on my feelings for you, but then you returned those feelings, and I didn’t know what to do. So I avoided you. I’d tried so hard to avoid thinking about what happened, I ran myself ragged within days, burying myself in my work, leaving me too sleep deprived to think clearly. And because of that, I made a mistake that almost cost you your life.”

Nora opened her mouth to interrupt, but he quickly put his hand up in a silent gesture to tell her to stop. “Please, just let me finish.” Nora slowly closed her jaw and nodded softly, continuing to stare at him. He sighed before resuming his speech. “When Cicada broke your back.. I’d never felt more helpless and afraid in my life. I was afraid that he’d plunge the dagger into your back and take you from me. And in that moment I realized just how much you meant to me, and I was filled with regret. Regret that I’d never get to tell you how I feel. That I’d never get the chance to tell you that I was sorry, tell you how much I loved you. And I prayed to any god that might listen that they might save you. I promised I’d take it all back, that I´d give you the love you deserved. And then you survived. And I couldn’t keep my promise.”

He paused for a moment, inhaling a deep breath of air before carrying on once more. “I’d made up my mind to try and let things get back to how they used to be. Back to normal. But then I saw you just now, and I realized I didn’t want normal. I wanted you.” He stared deeply into her deep brown eyes that flooded with tears of happiness, and he reached out with his hand to cradle her cheek, softly brushing his thumb against her skin to swipe away a stray tear streaming down her face. “Maybe that’s selfish, maybe it’s wrong.. But I don’t care. If this is wrong, I don’t want to be right.” With that, he slowly leaned in and pressed his lips against hers – softly, gently.

His tongue swiped at her lips, tasting the bitter salty taste of the remnants of the tears that lingered there before prodding forward, asking for entrance which she happily obliged, their tongues dancing softly in unison. There was no frantic eagerness, no battle of dominance – just an eloquent and quiet passion. The desire to pour his love into the kiss overruling the lustful desire to seize control of it. Once again his hands found their way onto her waist, and he felt her arms wrap around his neck as he pulled her close, his head tilting to the side for better access to her mouth as they kissed with a tempered intensity, no less powerful than their first kiss – just calmer.

After a prolonged moment he reluctantly pulled back, but only slightly as he leaned his forehead against hers, relishing her closeness as they caught their breath. Finally he heard her say in a hushed, husky whisper. “What about mom..?” He sighed softly, snaking his right hand up from where it lied on her waist to rest on her cheek. “I don’t know. I love Iris, I always will. But I also love you. I know it isn’t fair of me to have you both but--..” This time it was Nora who cut him off, slightly raising her voice to be heard over his.

“It’s more than fair. I’m not delusional, dad, I knew you were never going to break up with her. I don’t want you to. All I wanted was for you to love me like you do her.” He nodded slowly; his expression still unsure until he saw the slight smirk appearing on Nora’s face. “Besides, it’d be nice to be.. You know, born.” He laughed at that remark, shaking his head in disbelief. Even after all the times he’d time-traveled before it was still hard to wrap his mind around this whole thing. It wasn’t lost on him just how crazy it all was, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

Nora quickly leaned in all the sudden and planted another brief kiss against his lips before suddenly shifting on the couch to face the, positioning herself so that she was leaning against him. “Now if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to actually watch the movie.” She said quite cockily, and he snorted at her brazen attitude before wrapping his arm around her with a nod of his head. They could talk more about everything later. It’d been a long day. “Sure. But we should start over, because I wasn’t paying attention to the movie at all.”

She giggled cutely, and he thought it was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard. He pointed the remote over at the TV and rewound to the beginning while Nora draped a blanket over them. He put the remote aside before grabbing the bowl of popcorn and setting it down on his lap before Nora snuggled in against his chest, letting out a content hum which brought a smile to his lips.

Finally, he diverted his gaze to the movie. Things may not be fine, but he was content to absorb this moment of peace while it lasted. He knew things would be hard down the line, but he knew he could handle it. So long as he had Nora by his side, things would be alright.

“..What movie is this again?” He said sincerely, smirking slightly. “Dad!” Nora exclaimed amusedly, letting out another cute giggle which he smiled even brighter at.

‘Yeah,’ He thought to himself, 'Things were going to be alright.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's that. This chapter was more story-oriented, and had some fluff and angst in it, but I felt it was necessary moving forward. It was also a lot longer than I'd intended, so don't expect them to be as long as this one in future chapters. The next chapter will be more risqué and smutty, but it'll switch between being smut-heavy and story-heavy now and then in the next chapters, with a healthy mix of both in other chapters. I have some pointers where to take the story, but I don't want to make any promises about when I release them. I'll get around to it when I can.
> 
> There'll be some time jumps coming up in future chapters, as I'm not about to go through it step-by-step. The Cicada plot is stretched thin enough as it is.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How the fuck do I come up with this shit?
> 
> In this chapter we're back to Nora's perspective, and more or less just revolves around Barry and Nora as they settle into their new found relationship. Smut and fluff follow. Mostly smut. 
> 
> I won't do what some writers do, which is to mark the start and end of 'lemon', because the entire chapter is basically that, and I don't see how you could've gotten through the first chapter and kept on reading if you weren't okay with it.
> 
> Also, another quick note: In this story, Barry's desk at the CCPD actually has a back to it so you can't see under it. You can probably see where I'm going with this.

The past few days had gone by swimmingly, barring a few minor hiccups such as when she had to go into Grace’s memories herself to try and stop her dad from finding out her secret. Not that it mattered much in the end, as him and Iris ended up having to swoop in and rescue her anyway. Luckily, they hadn’t found out in the end, and things had been fine since. She’d thought about telling her dad so many times, but then she saw him with that bright, charming smile of his, and she just couldn’t bring herself to be the one to remove it from his face. She’d spent practically all her free time with her dad at every opportunity since they finally came to terms with their feelings for one another more than a week ago, doing whatever they wanted to do.

Sometimes they’d go to the movies, sometimes they’d play games, sometimes have dinner, or even just idly chat with one another. Although the highlight of her day was always the sex. No contest. Her cheeks flushed a bright red just thinking about it, and she felt a familiar warmth stir in her loins as she remembered how good he felt inside of her. It’d only been about a week and it was already getting out of control. They’d been getting more and more reckless by the day, taking stupid risks in the middle of the day, going as far as having sex at the CCPD, or sometimes even at STAR Labs. The amount of times they’d almost been caught was ridiculous. Thankfully, super speed had its perks in that regard.

Their connection was effortless. There wasn’t so much as a moment of awkwardness between them. And if there was, they’d just laugh about it. She’d never been happier than she was now when she was with him. Just seeing his smile was enough to brighten even her darkest days. Cicada had gone quiet, thank God. Most likely because of the beating The Flash gave him. Barry said he’d half-way broken his back when they last fought. That probably made him think twice about showing his face again anytime soon. Although with his meta powers, he’d probably be back once he’d healed. But in the meantime, she was perfectly content to enjoy the peace and quiet with the one person she wanted to spend all her time with.

And now here she was, on the very same couch all of this had started as she waited on Barry to get back. She idly looked around the apartment, only now taking in her surroundings. It was quite classy and spacious, as apartments go. He’d told her about how one day he wanted to move out of the apartment and go live somewhere more urban instead of in the city like the home he had when he was a kid. He said he wanted a place he could start a family in when it was all over, and maybe the Flash would finally hang up his cowl. Nora knew him better than that, though. The world would always need The Flash, and Barry was always going to come running when people needed him. He was good like that.

It still amazed her how after everything she’d learned about him, all the horror and deaths he’s had to endure, the lying and the wreckage – he still finds a way to be positive. She was hesitant to subscribe to that same brand of optimism, although she liked to think she was a pretty upbeat kind of gal. People had always told her so when she was little, how bright and positive she was, just like her father. But now that she’d met him, she thought her own cheerful outlook on life paled in comparison to his.

He always saw the best in people, even when they didn’t see it themselves. He was a hero; one she’d idolized all her life before she even knew it was her father. Needless to say, after she found out, her affection for him grew exponentially. To find out that the two people she revered were two sides of the same coin – it was quite a shock. She remembered the emotional turmoil she’d felt when Gideon played Barry’s final message to her before he vanished. The outpour of love she could feel from that message alone was enough to make her throw caution to the wind and get Thawne’s help to run to the past.  

She smiled stupidly to herself as she realized she’d drifted into her own thoughts and gone on another rant about how amazing Barry was, but she just couldn’t help it. Whenever she had a moment to herself, her mind would always wander towards thoughts about her dad and she’d start fawning over him. You’d think that a person could never possibly live up to the ridiculously high expectations she’d built up in her mind over the years, but he had. She sighed as she looked over her shoulder towards the clock on one of the walls, frowning when she saw what the time was. ‘He’s late,’ she thought to herself.

As if summoned by her thoughts, she heard a resounding zap from the Speed Force, and she looked over to see the center of her thoughts standing at the doorway as he hung up his jacket on the coat rack.

‘Speak of the devil.’

She sank down further into the couch, crossing her arms over her chest as she prepared herself to be angry at him. The moment he turned around, and she saw him smile the moment he spotted her, her anger disappeared – replaced only with longing and joy. Still, she wasn’t about to let him get away with being late without any repercussions, so she put on an irritated expression and looked away from him. “You’re late,” she said simply, trying her best to sound angrier than she was. She heard his footsteps as he began to walk over, and to his credit, he sounded genuinely guilty when he spoke. “Sorry, I got held back at work.” She looked over at him with feigned frustration, and when she saw him rubbing at the back of his neck with his eyes downcast towards the ground she briefly considered dropping the act and running over to hug him. But what would be the fun in that?

Instead she quirked a brow questioningly in a silent gesture to ask him to clarify before voicing that very same question. “Oh? What had you so busy?” He walked closer, standing at the edge of the couch as he looked down at her, a slight smirk creeping up on the corner of his lips before he replied. “Well a certain someone interrupted me at work, and Captain Singh wanted me to deliver on some overdue projects.” She pursed her lips in an attempt to stop herself from smiling, knowing full well that he was alluding to the time she’d seduced him at work and made a complete mess of his lab. She wanted to draw this out for as long as she could.

She turned away again to hide the slight smile that was forcing its way onto her face, looking directly forward towards the TV as she grabbed the remote and started blindly shifting through the different channels. She heard him sigh as he moved over and sat down beside her. “Come on, don’t be mad.” He said softly, and she could see him looking at her out of the peripheral of her vision. She turned again to look at him with an indifferent expression. “Oh I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed.” She replied brazenly, and she saw him frown slightly before confusion overtook his face, and he squinted at her questioningly after she threw her own parents line back in his face.

The longer he stared at her, the harder it was to keep a straight face, and finally she burst out in a fit of laughter – unable to keep the charade going. Her laughter only got louder when she saw the realization dawn over his face, and the amused expression that appeared on him when he realized he’d been had was priceless. “Wow, way to make me feel bad. You had me thinking you were genuinely angry at me. Maybe you should’ve become an actress instead of a forensic scientist.” She slowly came down from the high of her outburst, wiping a stray tear from her eyes after recovering before looking over at him with an amused expression

“Then who would disturb you at work?” She said playfully, mirth coloring the tone of her voice, and she saw him shake his head and look away from her with a smile on his face. She giggled at his antics before crawling over and setting herself down onto his lap while wrapping her arms around his neck to make him look at her, both her legs set down on either side of him. “Oh don’t be mad, daddy.” She said in a sultry tone, shooting him an intentionally exaggerated pout, “I just wanted to have a little fun.” He smirked at her, clearly amused but trying not to show it. “At my expense, apparently.” She gave him a cocky grin at that, tilting her head a bit as she looked into his eyes. “Of course, it wouldn’t be fun otherwise.”

He sighed and shook his head, unable to conceal his amusement. “You’re a piece of work, you know that?” He said accusingly, and she simply smiled seductively at him, leaning forward to press her chest against his as she scooched closer into his lap. “Are you going to punish me, daddy?” She said suggestively as she started grinding her hips against his crotch through the fabric of their jeans, biting gently down on her lip as she looked at him with lust. He let out a low growl as she continued to rub against him, his expression morphing to one of longing and desire as he looked at her hungrily. “You’re incorrigible.” He muttered out under his breath, his voice taking on a raspy tone that made her shudder with want.

She stared into his eyes, never once breaking eye contact as she carried on teasing him. “Come on, daddy,” She purred out, “Punish your naughty little girl.” She let out a low moan as his hands found their way onto her backside, giving it a firm squeeze. She smiled victoriously at him as she felt his stiffening length press up against her through his jeans, her own panties becoming damp as a result as she got increasingly turned on. Suddenly, she let out a high-pitched yelp as she was abruptly flipped over onto her back, giggling softly as he hovered over her and quickly leaned in to attack her neck with a series of gentle bites and kisses that marked her flesh, his hands roaming over her unfortunately clothed body, squeezing and caressing her through the fabric until she was practically a quivering mess.

A low, disgruntled moan escaped her throat as he suddenly withdrew back from her, disappointment etched onto her features until he groaned out his next command. “Get undressed. Now.” She nodded rapidly in response before tapping into the Speed Force to strip herself completely naked in under a second, her smooth, slender body revealed to him as she stared up at him expectantly, her chest heaving up and down in exertion. She didn’t have to wait long as he lunged back in again in an instant, kissing his way down every inch of her body until he reached her breasts, his mouth finding her right teat while his hand groped her left, squeezing and caressing it in perfect balance while he sucked on her breast with a determined ferocity. Her whole body shivered as she felt his tongue dash out to swipe her nipple before engulfing it with his mouth, his tongue swirling in circles around her areolae.

She leaned her head back against the couch while her hands ran through his hair, her leg sliding up the couch to sit at an angle as the pleasure became too much for her to keep still. She let out a quiet whimper as his mouth retreated from her right breast, only to latch onto her left one to administer the same treatment as the other one until finally he pulled back all together and began to kiss his way down her stomach, placing a ticklish peck on her belly button which made her giggle involuntarily before continuing his descent down to her crotch.

For a moment she felt him stop, and she opened her eyes and perked her head up to look down at him, the anticipation driving her mad until she suddenly felt his tongue swipe against her wet folds, teasingly flicking at her clit before closing the distance altogether and pushing forward to slide his tongue inside her, the action drawing a low hum of pleasure from her mouth at first before she dropped her head back against the couch as she felt his tongue thrust forward. She withdrew one hand from his hair to slither up to her chest, squeezing her breast to aid the hastening of her release when she felt his arms wrap around her thighs from under, nudging her closer to him.

She moaned in rhythm with his efforts, each swipe of his tongue drawing out a moan louder and more guttural than the last. She tensed up as he changed up his tactic, her mouth agape as his tongue twirled around inside her in circular motions, eagerly lapping up her juices as he pushed his tongue further inside her with another pull of his arms, edging her that much closer with his grip on her thighs. She bit down on her lip harder than she meant to, enough to draw a bit of blood. “Yes, yes, yes!” She muttered out as he continuously revisited her most sensitive spots, his tongue speeding up its efforts as she neared her climax

Her eyes shot wide open in surprise as she suddenly felt his tongue begin to vibrate inside her as he tapped into his speed, her eyes rolling back into her head when her entire body tensed as she felt her climax rapidly approach, her hand grabbing a fistful of his hair as she nearly tumbled over the edge when he abruptly pulled back from her. She let out a frustrated huff, her lungs still gasping for breath as she tilted her head up to look over at Barry who had the cockiest grin she’d ever seen plastered across his face. “Why’d you stop?!” She exclaimed a bit too loudly, still out of breath. His grin simply widened, seemingly very proud of himself.

“This is punishment, remember? Not a reward.” She rapidly shook her head as she sat up to look at him properly. “But I was so close!” She whined out desperately as she began to crawl forward on all fours across the couch and over to Barry before rising up to her knees, her naked, flushed body exposed to him as she tugged at the collar of his sweater to bring him closer. “Please! I’m sorry! Just please let me cum!” She griped at him, to which he simply shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He said firmly, and before she could respond she found herself thrown forward onto his lap – her stomach lying flat against his legs. “Now it’s time for your punishment.” She furrowed her brow in confusion at his words. “But I thought--..”

She was cut off by his hand coming to rest on her backside, and her eyes widening in realization as she understood the implication of what he was going to do. “You can’t be serious--..” Once again she was cut off as he wound back his hand before abruptly bringing it back down onto her ass as he spanked her roughly, drawing a loud yelp from her as she recoiled from the stinging pain. “One.” He said firmly, his hand beginning to rub her ass in circular swipes where she’d just been spanked to soothe the ache. “W-What?” She whimpered out quietly when she felt his hand withdraw again only to return in full force as he spanked her again, her ass cheeks rippling from the force of the blow. “Two.” He counted again, giving her only a moment of respite as he continued to tenderly massage her cheek.

“Daddy, please..” She moaned out again, her voice soft as if she was afraid he’d punish her further if she raised her voice. Once again his hand came crashing down on her backside, and she let out another yelp of pain – her eyes beginning to tear up from the harsh treatment. Then he spanked her again. And again. It wasn’t until around the sixth slap that the pain began to morph into something else entirely, an odd mixture of both pain and pleasure blended together in unison surging through her that sent sparks of pleasure rushing to her loins. As he kept spanking her the pain was rendered almost non-existent to her, the repeated spankings making it grow numb to her, only the masochistic pleasure prevalent in amidst every slap of his hand.

Her moans began to change to incorporate an undertone of pleasure, her pussy growing even more wet atop her already heightened arousal. Come the fourteenth slap she couldn’t hold back any longer, his previous efforts having pushed her to the edge only for the spanking to drive her over it, and her whole body shook as her climax rocked through her, running havoc on her body. She let out a loud moan of pleasure, gasping for breath as she came down from the high of her release. After recovering her pleasure-addled senses, she realized he’d stopped spanking her, and she hesitantly looked over her shoulder at him with a guilty expression on her face to see him staring at her in surprise, although it quickly changed to one of longing.

“You naughty minx..” He muttered out under his breath, and she could see he was as turned on as she was – the bulge in his jeans that was pressing up against her evidence enough of that. She smiled seductively at him, his reaction eradicating any and all shame she’d felt as she climbed her way back up to sit on his lap as she’d done before, wincing slightly from the stinging pain in her butt before setting both her legs on either side of his thighs and then pressing her naked body against him as she let out a low hum. Her gaze flickered in between his lips and his eyes, and she pressed her wet cunt down on the bulge in his pants, staining his jeans with her slick arousal. She needed more.

“Your turn now..” She whispered softly into his ear before reaching a hand down for his belt when she heard someone fumbling with a key at the door, and her eyes widened in fear as she looked between the door and Barry, who had an equally as terrified expression on his face and they quickly did what they’d already had to do so many times before now. She saw the yellow lightning crackle around him, and she tapped into the Speed Force to follow his lead – time practically stopping for all intents and purposes as she quickly zoomed around the living room, collecting her clothes and getting dressed before throwing herself into the couch a bit too quickly, as she almost tumbled over the edge of it.

She looked to her right to see Barry sitting next to her with his arms crossed with a remote in hand, and she looked at the TV to see he’d switched on some random scientific channel. That ought to be believable enough. She quickly brushed herself off as she heard the door open before leaning back forward, setting her elbow down on her knee before propping her chin up on her open fist – pretending to be deeply absorbed by whatever was on the TV. She heard a few more steps and then the door close, shortly after accompanied by her mother’s voice. “I’m home!” She looked up a bit over towards the door where Iris was hanging up her coat, trying to act as distracted and nonchalant as she could muster up.

“Hey.” She said weakly in response, pretending to be preoccupied by the show. “Welcome home,” Was Barry’s response immediately after. She continued to stare at the TV, briefly glancing to her right at Barry who looked back at her briefly with a smirk which she couldn’t help but replicate for a moment before applying her previously neutral expression. She heard Iris walk over before sitting down on the couch next to Barry. “What are you guys watching?” She looked to her right at her dad to see him shrug casually, pretending to be disinterested. “Some science channel. Nora insisted on watching it. “

At the mention of her name she pretended to perk up as if she wasn’t already listening to every word, looking over at the two of them to see her dad with his arms crossed and eyes focused on the TV, while her mom had her legs folded underneath her on the couch and her elbow propped up on the back of it as she looked at the TV with idle curiosity. She saw Iris squint at the show for a moment before shrugging to herself and looking over at her, and she adopted an excited expression as she prepared to make up an excuse. “I just think it’s interesting to learn more about the science from this time. It’s so different from the time I’m from. It’s funny to see how much you’ve yet to discover.”

Iris nodded slowly at her words, seemingly convinced, and she looked back over at the TV herself, satisfied with her own excuse. “Did you spill something on yourself, Barry?” She heard Iris say after a moment, and she looked back over towards Barry who was looking down at himself, and she followed his gaze to see the stain on his crotch that she’d left after sitting on him. She quickly turned away to hide her reaction, her cheeks blushing a bright red as she pursed her lips, pretending not to know anything. “Uh, yeah. Must’ve spilled some water on myself earlier. I hadn’t noticed.”

She heard a shuffle on the couch and looked up to see Iris standing up and reaching her hand out for Barry to take. “Well you can’t go around like that. C’mon. I’ll help you out of them.” She didn’t miss the not-so-subtle meaning of her words, and her anger flared for a moment as she was overcome with jealousy. It quickly died down as she came to her senses, and she took a deep breath to calm herself down. Barry nodded slowly as he got up, and she eyed the two of them as they went upstairs together. As she saw them go into their room, she let out a deep frustrated sigh before turning her attention to the TV for real this time.

After a while she heard some muffled noises coming from their room, and she sighed again. She didn’t mind that it was Iris having sex with him. She was completely fine with that. She was just angry that it wasn’t her that was doing it with him right now. Even after her orgasm she was still incredibly turned on, and she was getting sick of being interrupted at every turn. A naughty thought crept into her mind for a moment, that maybe they could share him at the same time. Maybe Iris would be okay with that. She quickly shook her head, banishing the thought from the dark depths of her mind it had originated from.

‘Don’t be so stupid,’ She thought to herself, ‘This isn’t a damn porno. This is real life.’

Still, a part of herself couldn’t shake the idea from her mind. It’d solve a lot of problems, that’s certain, but it’d create a whole lot of others. Things were messed up and complicated enough as it is. Besides, it was her dad she wanted. Not her mom. Although if she wasn’t afraid to cross the line of having sex with her dad, maybe it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility to do the same for her mom. She quickly squashed the idea. She was just being ridiculous now. ‘This isn’t a damn porno.’ She repeated to herself in her mind.

She’d just have to deal with it. She knew what she was getting into when it all started. She sighed as she resigned herself to watching the TV. They’d just have to finish what they’d started another time.

-

A day had passed since Iris had interrupted her little session with her dad, and she could still feel the stinging pain in her butt from the spanking he’d given her -- a constant reminder of her ‘punishment’. She never would have thought he’d be so rough with her when they’d first started their little affair. I mean, she’d hoped, but she never thought he would. It excited her to no end – and she wanted more. **Needed** more. And she wasn’t about to wait either. Her legs carried her towards the CCPD, her satchel carrying her CSI kit slung over her shoulder as she made her way to Barry’s lab. If nothing else, she was at least going to spend some time with him. After all, it was kind of her fault that he was behind on work.

‘I can think of a few ways I can make it up to him.’ She thought to herself, her cheeks flushing red as the possibilities raced through her mind.

Not before long she found herself in the hallway outside his lab, and she swiftly turned the corner to find Barry at his desk with his left elbow set on the table and his head propped up on his open palm as he stared at one of the many folders littering his desk. She let out a low whistle as she looked around at all the boxes filled with even more folders stashed around them, which caught Barry’s attention as he seemed to perk up at the sound and he smiled as he saw her, although he seemed a bit apprehensive. He was probably suspicious about her motives, she gathered. She smiled brightly back at him as she walked over and dropped her satchel onto a nearby table.

“I’m here to help!” She exclaimed eagerly, and he squinted at her, doubt written all over his features as he slowly shook his head, a small grin pulling at the corner of his mouth. “Yeah, I know exactly how you ‘help’. I actually need to get through this, you know. At this rate, all the criminals in the reports will have died of old age.” He replied in jest, and she refrained from giggling at his remark, simply smiling innocently back at him in reply. “If you’re so set on finishing it, why don’t you just use your speed to get through it all?” She inquired, hefting her shoulders in a lazy shrug.

Barry sighed as he leaned back into his chair, crossing his arms as he mirrored her shrug with one of his own. “Believe it or not, I try to keep those two sides of my life separate. With all the crazy stuff that’s been going on, I just like to have a little ounce of normalcy in my life. Even if it’s something as mundane and arduous as paperwork.” He explained to her, peering over at her for her reaction. She sighed, shrugging simply at his answer as she smiled at him. “Well if you insist on doing it the normal way, then I’m going to help you.”

He grinned at her willingness to help, resigning in defeat as he undoubtedly realized there was no stopping her, and he simply gestured an open palm towards the folders on the table. “Well have at it, speedster.” She smiled widely at his acceptance for her help, holding up a finger as she started to back up. “First things first, coffee. If we’re gonna get through all this, we’re gonna need some, and a whole lot of it.” He chuckled, nodding at the wisdom of her words before returning to the paperwork.

She quickly fetched some coffee, and before long she was back in the lab, and she set a cup in front of him while clutching her own in her other hand. Drawing up a chair, she plopped down onto it on the other side of his desk and sighed as she looked at the stacks of paper everywhere around her.

It was going to be a long day.

-

“Dad, we’ve been working for hours. It’s two in the afternoon, we haven’t even had lunch yet.” She said impatiently, her brain feeling as if it was beginning to rot from the non-stop repetitive work they’d been doing all day. She eyed her dad expectantly; the work visibly having taken a toll on him as well as he looked like he was on the verge of passing out as he idly tapped the bottom of his pen against a piece of paper. Having gotten no response, she waved her hand in front of his face until he looked up. “Hm?” He muttered out questioningly, apparently not having heard what she’d said. She shook her head as she got up from her chair before rotating around to his side of the desk.

“Alright, that’s it. You need a break.” She said firmly as she tugged at his shirt to try and get him to stand up, to which he shook his head stubbornly and straightened up in his chair. “No, I’m fine. I just need--..”

“A break.” She finished, cutting him off. “Come on, we’ll get lunch, and continue when we get back.” He sighed, remaining irritatingly steadfast as he lazily rubbed at the temple of his forehead. “I’m not hungry.” She narrowed her eyes at him, looking right through his weak excuse. “Dad, you’re a speedster. You’re always hungry.” He simply shrugged, looking up at her with a tired smile. “Well, now I’m not.” He replied simply.

She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping down in surrender, her weariness weighing her down when she suddenly had an idea. She pursed her lips to prevent herself from smiling as she walked around behind him, wrapping her arms around him as she leaned forward, letting her hands rub idly at his chest through his shirt. “Well if you’re not hungry, at least let me help you unwind.” She purred seductively into his ear as she slowly slid her hands down his chest to paw at his belt, and she felt him tense under her as she stroked him through his jeans. She stopped as he quickly grabbed her by the elbow.

“No, Nora. That’s precisely what got me into this situation to begin with.” He muttered quietly, but she could hear in the tone of his voice that he wasn’t exactly adamant to stop her. Emboldened by his not-so-decisive attempt to hinder her advances, she simply moved her hand forward and continued to loosen his belt while pressing her chest against his back, finally unclasping his belt after a moment of struggle and sliding it off and to the side. “Nora..” He growled out warningly in a hushed voice, but she ignored him as she slid her hand under his jeans and boxers before wrapping her petite hand around his already semi-hard cock, feeling it twitch in her hand at her touch. She hummed lewdly, her hand tightening slightly around his length as she just barely moved her hand up and down, just enough to agonize him.

“Mmm.. What have we here?” She murmured sensuously into his ear, “Looks like you’re not as against this as you said you were.” Barry groaned slightly as he leaned back into her chest, his resolve crumbling under her touch. She smirked in triumph as she continued to tease him for a moment longer before withdrawing her hand, promptly wrapping back around in front of him and kneeling down at his feet. His eyes widened as he understood where she was going with this, and weakly pulled back in his chair. “Nora, what are you doing?!” He whispered out firmly, careful not to be heard by anyone but her.

She looked up innocently into his eyes, smiling warmly at him as she answered. “I wanna see it.” She said in her cutest voice, knowing full well how crazy it drives him to hear her speak in that manner. Despite all the times they’d had sex, she’d never actually gotten the chance to see it for herself. They’d always been in a hurry in the past, always afraid to get caught. But this time she wasn’t gonna let the opportunity slip by. Before he could respond, she unbuttoned his jeans and then pulled down his zipper, her hands snaking up his thighs to pull at the hem of his pants and then curling under the waistband of his boxers as she started tugging down at them both to shift them down his legs with some difficulty.

Having given up on fighting, Barry begrudgingly lifted his hips up a bit to make it easier for her, and she stared at his crotch in anticipation as she slid them down his legs. The moment she’d pulled them far enough down, his shaft suddenly sprang free from its confines and smacked down on her face, making her flinch back a bit in surprise with a blink of her eyes before she opened them again. Her mouth opened agape in awe and surprise as she took in the sight before her, unobscured by any obstacle or piece of clothing. She’d known he was big, after all she’d felt it inside of her, but she didn’t know he was quite THIS big. It probably covered more than the length of her face from forehead to chin in its current state, and it wasn’t even fully hard yet.

She bit down on her lower lip as she stared at his massive cock, mesmerized by the sight as she felt her own lust build up inside of her as she pondered the possibilities. Without thinking she instinctively reached out and wrapped her slender fingers around it, feeling it pulse in her hand at her touch as she tried to get her fingertips to touch, but finding herself unable to wrap her hand entirely around it. ‘Fuck, it’s so thick as well.. How the hell does he hide this monster in that tight Flash suit?’ She thought to herself, puzzled and astonished. She gulped, less out of nervousness and more out of necessity as she began to salivate rapidly the longer she stared at his magnificent cock.

“Nora, stop it, get up from there--..” Barry began to hiss when he suddenly looked up from where she was kneeling, his eyes widening at something when she heard a voice. “Allen!” Her own eyes widened as she recognized the person the voice belonged to, her muscles freezing in fear. “Captain Singh!” Her dad replied in a rather strained voice as he straightened up a bit in his chair, nudging her with his foot as he began to roll his chair closer to the desk. Recognizing his silent request, she quickly scooched backwards completely under the desk so that she was thoroughly hidden from sight, and she sucked in a deep breath as she tried to be quiet.

“How are you coming along with the Kenyon report?” She heard Singh say as she pursed her lips in concentration as she tried to listen in, although there was quite the hefty distraction in front of her a very short ways from her face. “Oh, uh, I’m still working on it, sir.” Barry began to explain, and a wicked thought forced its way into her mind. “I’ve had a lot to go thr--..” Unable to stop herself, she reached out again and gripped his cock once more, causing him to almost jump in his seat. “You alright, Allen?” Singh asked questioningly, suspicion evident on the tone of his voice. She bit harder down on her lower lip to try and stop herself from laughing.

“Mhm! Yeah, I’m good, just uh.. A bit jumpy from all the coffee, sir.” Her dad rambled out quickly, trying his best not to move in his chair as she started gingerly moving her up and down as she stroked his cock, feeling it throb in her hand as it grew harder and bigger in her hand. “Right, well, you were saying?” She heard Singh say again, and she quickly seized the opportunity to torment her dad some more as he was about to speak. “Um, yeah, I was just saying I’ve had a lot--..” Swiftly leaning forward, she teasingly flicked her tongue against the head of his cock, cutting him off and making him flinch again, although less noticeably this time.

She heard her dad clear his throat, apparently not deterred by her attempts to distract him. “A lot to do, since I got back, sir. Paperwork and all.” He continued almost casually if not for the slight awkwardness to his tone. She saw him shoot a glance down at her, and she grinned cheekily up at him as she gave the head of his cock another lick to torture him further before he quickly looked back away from her. “Alright well, make sure to prioritize the Kenyon report. I want it on my desk by the end of the day.”

She stifled another giggle and then hastily leaned back in, inhaling his musky scent before slowly running her tongue all the way up the underside of his cock until she reached the tip, her tongue swiping out to lap up some pre-cum that had begun to ooze out. She felt him shiver again, and his cock pulsed once more as it grew even harder. “Yeah, absolutely, no problem.” She heard her dad say a bit too quickly as he tried to compose himself, and she simply smiled as she licked his sensitive tip a couple more times. “Where’s your intern, anyway? The one you hired to help you with all this.” Singh asked, and she felt Barry tense at the question.

Ignoring her dad’s predicament, she tilted her head forward and wrapped her lips around the head of his cock that was still oozing pre-cum, swirling her tongue around the sensitive skin of his tip to slurp it all up. There was a moment of silence until she finally heard Singh call out her dad’s name. “Allen.” Barry perked up at that. “Hm?” He hummed out in a question, and she had to stop herself from giggling again. “Your intern. Where is she? Shouldn’t she be helping you with all this?” Singh repeated, and she promptly pushed her head further down, taking more of his massive cock into her mouth, using her saliva to lube up the length of his shaft.

There was a short pause again as Barry tried to keep his cool, and she heard Singh start to speak again to reprimand him, but he quickly cut him off the moment the first syllable was uttered. “Yeah, no, uh, she’s.. On her lunch break.” She smiled at her dad’s hidden innuendo about her ‘lunch’ as she continued to bob her head up and down his cock, her hands stretching out to wrap around the base of his cock, giving it a languid stroke upwards to milk more of his pre-cum to the surface before slurping it all up. “I’m sure she’ll be..” Barry began, and she suddenly pushed forward, quickly swallowing his cock one inch at a time – stuffing his enormous cock as far down her throat as she could muster, her throat bulging obscenely as she manages to engulf about a third of his cock a little ways away from the base.

She failed to stifle a wet gurgle as she gagged from the hasty attempt to take him all in her mouth in one-go, although it was luckily muffled by her dad as he spoke. “C-Coming pretty soon. Back.” She quickly pulled back, taking his cock all the way out of her mouth, just barely managing to stop herself from coughing as she inhaled a sharp breath of air as she quietly gasped for breath. She could not do that again. She needed way more preparation to take it all down her throat. Putting a pause at that, she immediately leaned back in and continued to drag her tongue up and down along the thick vein of his cock, panting quietly like a bitch in heat as she tried not to be heard.

“..Right. Well, make sure you get something yourself. You’re no good to me half-starved and exhausted.” She heard Singh say firmly, and she smirked slightly at the suggestion. ‘Oh, he’s got something alright.’ She thought naughtily to herself as she continued to lather his cock with her saliva, her tongue doing another couple laps up and down the side of his cock before she took him into her mouth again, progressively making her way down as she linked her downwards thrusts with the movement of her head while pumping her hands up and down the base of his cock to compensate for the area her mouth couldn’t yet reach. “Uh, yeah, will do.” She heard her dad say, and after a moment she heard gradually fading footsteps, slowly becoming more distant until they couldn’t be heard altogether, and she finally let out a depraved moan, unable to muffle the noise any longer.

She looked up at her dad with his cock still buried in her mouth, and she could tell he was looking to scold her, but that could wait a bit longer. She needed more of him. She quickly pushed forward once more, albeit slower than before, her lips stretching wide to accommodate for its impressive girth as she greedily slurped and sucked on his colossal cock while pumping her hands up and down in tandem with her head’s thrusts. She continued to swirl her tongue around his shaft, wetting it thoroughly with her slow descent until the head of his bulbous cock bumped against her tonsils. She gagged on his cock, her eyes tearing up as her body pleaded for her to stop, but she couldn’t. He tasted too good.

Steeling herself, she hesitantly bobbed her head up and down again as she tried to adjust to his size, the head of his cock ramming up against her throat with each push downwards, until finally her throat gave way and she managed to drive it even further down her throat. Again she gagged every time it bumped against her throat, the room filled with the sound of her lewd gulps and slurps as she continued to eagerly suck on his massive cock, accentuated by the sound of her lustful moaning as she drooled all over his shaft. Throwing one more Hail Mary as she felt his throbbing cock near the edge, she drove her head forward in one last attempt to take it all down her throat, managing to take another inch down her gullet but ultimately coming short as she coughed and splattered as she was forced to withdraw.

She quickly yanked back, gurgling over his cock a couple more times until she finally pulled all the way back, his cock slipping in between her lips and out of her mouth, connected only by a long strand of saliva as she gasped for breath – coughing some more as she recovered. She swirled her tongue around her lips to slurp up the drool and then leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the head of his glorious cock before wrapping her lips around it. She felt him shudder, and she adamantly pushed forward enough to take the entire head of his cock into her mouth as she prepared for the flood.

As if on cue, she felt wave after wave of sticky cum splatter into her mouth, and she greedily swallowed it all, letting out a vulgar moan as gulped down every drop of his delicious cum. Once the flood stopped, she twirled her tongue to lick up any cum that remained before pulling back with a pop. She grinned proudly up at her dad who stared at her in bewilderment, and she placed one more reverent kiss on the head of his cock before wiping some saliva off her mouth and getting up from under the desk, not without peeking over it first. Standing up to her feet, she brushed herself off as her dad pulled up his jeans and fastened it in place with his belt again.

She turned to look at him, and the look on his face made her grin. “What the hell was that, Nora?” He said firmly, although obviously not too upset as he finished tightening his belt. She shrugged before answering in her cutest, most innocent voice. “I was hungry. You refused to feed me.” He let out an amused puff of air through his nose as he shook his head in disbelief. “You’re something else.” He muttered out, and she let out a cute giggle in response. “Guess you’ll just have to find some way to punish me again.” She said suggestively in a sultry voice before moving back around to her side of the desk and sitting back down.

“Now come on, we’ve got work to do.” She said with a bossy tone before reaching over to grab the nearest folder and flipping it open, shooting a quick glance in her dad’s direction to ascertain his reaction just in time to see him smile to himself and shake his head as he sat back down and pulled up a folder of his own.

Silence passed through the room for a moment until she finally added one last comment. “You taste delicious, by the way.” She heard him chuckle, and she smirked to herself as they both got back to work.

She couldn’t wait to see what punishment he had in store for her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little respite from the angst and drama. If not, we'll be back to it in the next chapter whenever I get around to it. I think. Maybe. Who knows? I certainly don't.
> 
> This chapter was a LOT longer than I'd intended, but oh well.
> 
> I'm still debating whether or not I should fall back on using the POV's character name, as you can only do he/she so many times before there's some confusion or repetitive writing. But I feel like that kind of yanks you out of their POV, so I'm not sure. Maybe I'll edit all of these one day and change it.
> 
> This chapter was a bit hard to write. This is only my second fanfiction, and I'm still learning the ropes of things, but I think I managed alright. You be the judge.
> 
> As for the next chapter, I won't make any promises about when it'll be released. We'll have to wait and see.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does this mean the story counts as 'Porn With Plot'?
> 
> Sorry this chapter took so long to get out. Finally got some free time on my hands and I started feeling kind of under the weather. The next chapter should hopefully come out sooner than this one, as I have more of an idea where I'm going with it than I did this one. I think.
> 
> Anyway, picks up with Barry's POV at the beginning of S05E14 when Barry's about to go into the Speed Force to speed up the synthesizing process of Cisco's cure. Took some more liberties with the canon dialogue and expanded on it. I always felt like more could be included and branched on if there wasn't the episode run-time to worry about, so here's my take on it.

He narrowed his gaze onto the monitor as he began to punch in the numbers to open the pipeline when he heard a zap from the Speed Force behind him. Turning around with a raised brow, he let loose a small smile as he saw Nora standing there expectantly in her XS suit. He shook his head at her silent question as he turned his body to face her to properly address her. “Nora, you need to stay here.” He said softly, only to see her facial features scrunch up in confusion. “You don’t want my help?” She inquired, almost sounding hurt but he shook his head again as he gestured to the supposed meta-human cure vial in his hand before peering back over at her. “I just—I got this one this time.” He replied in an attempt to defuse the situation, when he saw another expression entirely take over her face. Worry.

“Are you sure that now is a good time to go?” She said uneasily, clearly bothered by something or the other, and he furrowed his brow as he narrowed his gaze onto her assessingly in an attempt to determine the problem before she continued. “I mean, I just mean the city will be.. Flash-less, and an hour is a long time to be without the Flash.” She explained, and he sighed under his breath as he walked closer to her, establishing eye contact. “The city is not gonna be Flash-less. It’ll have XS.” He said softly to try and soothe her fears before she continued.

“Yeah, but what about the time you had to spend twenty-four hours in the Pipeline cell and Weather Witch and Silver Ghost stole that A.R.G.U.S car—" He smiled to himself as he briefly looked away during her rant. She was so adorable when she was worried. “And you stopped them.” He said, cutting her off as he pursed his lips momentarily before speaking again, “Without me.” He pointed out, and he saw her look down at his chest, clearly trying to figure out what to say for a moment, letting out an exasperated huff before speaking again. “With what happened to Mom because of Cicada..” She said trailing off, and he cut back in, speaking softly still.

“Iris is fine, and this is the key to stopping Cicada.” He said as he held the vial out in front of him, sighing as he saw her cast her eyes downwards to the floor for a moment before looking back up at him, worry still plastered across her face. “I gotta go. If anything happens, just do what I’ve trained you to do -- slow down and think clearly.” She nodded faintly in acceptance of his words, sighing as she muttered out a quiet ‘Yeah..’ under her breath. He simply smiled at her as he turned his body sideways as he prepared to turn around. “I trust you, you just gotta trust yourself.” He said in a manner he hoped was reassuring.

“But--..” He heard her say, and he turned back around to see Nora struggling to speak. He squinted at her as realization dawned over him about what she was trying to say. “This isn’t just about what happened with Iris, is it?” He said, sighing as he stepped closer again. She pursed her lips in response, nervously clutching at her left wrist with her right hand as she shyly nodded to confirm his suspicions. “I’m that obvious, huh..?” She mumbled softly, and he smiled warmly at her. “To me, yeah.” He replied, looking at her reassuringly in a silent go-ahead to continue.

“It’s just.. After what Cicada did..” She began hesitantly, and his blood began to boil as he thought back to that day when he’d broken Nora’s back. It still brought him unimaginable rage and guilt just thinking about it. He inhaled deeply in through his nose as he tried to calm himself, nodding lightly for her to continue. “What if Cicada comes back, and I’m not enough? What if I can’t protect everyone?” She finished, tears beginning to well in her eyes as hysteria started settling in, her voice cracking. He stepped in closer and reached out with his gloved hand to cradle her cheek, softly brushing it against her face in repeated swipes to try and comfort her.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Come on, sit down with me for a minute.” He said softly as he gestured an open palm out towards the makeshift metal ‘benches’ on either side of the platform leading up to the pipeline, and she sniffed sobbingly as she sat down, him seating himself beside her. He wrapped a comforting arm around her as he eyed her to the side, running his hand up and down her arm. “Look, I know where you’re coming from. Really, I do. Better than you think.” She narrowed her gaze onto him questioningly, quirking an inquisitive eyebrow in an indication for him to clarify what he meant.

He took another deep breath to steel himself before speaking, trepidation evident in the tone of his voice as he spoke. “Remember when we went back in time to get the Speed Force transmitter to defeat Cicada?” He asked more rhetorically than anything else, but she nodded all the same, so he continued. “The speedster that tried to stop us, Zoom, he did something similar to what Cicada did to you. And when I say similar, I mean practically the same thing.” She furrowed her brows, clearly not knowing what he’s referring to, so once again he pressed on with another sigh.

“It was during my first encounter with him. I’d heard all about how terrifying he was, how fast he was, how monstrous he was – but I didn’t care. He’d been sending meta-humans from Earth-2 for a while then to kill me, and I wanted to put a stop to it. So me and the team came up with a plan to lure him out so we could bait him into a trap, but it didn’t work. He showed up at the front doors of S.T.A.R Labs, and we fought.” He explained, pausing only to steel himself further as he dove into the unpleasant memory.

Nora on the other hand seemed very intrigued as she began to grin at him. “Oh, schway! The first time you fought Zoom. Wow, must have been a battle for the ages, huh?” She said excitedly, but her smile faltered as he shook his head, letting out a morose puff of air in bitter amusement. “Actually, I got my ass handed to me.” He said simply, and she stared at him in disbelief. “No way.” She uttered out, clearly refusing to believe that happened.

He nodded a couple times to confirm his earlier statement before continuing. “Yeah. I wasn’t as fast then as I am now. Hell, I threw a bolt of lightning at him, and you know what he did?” He paused, letting her ponder what he was saying before continuing. “He caught it and threw it back at me.” Nora blinked at in bewilderment at what he’d told her, clearly confused but he resumed his story to fill in the gaps before she could ask him any questions. “After that, we fought some more, until finally he won and broke my back, same as Cicada did to you.”

Nora’s mouth went agape, clearly shocked to learn of their shared experience. He simply nodded and sighed, looking down at his lap as he spoke further. “After that, I was broken, in more ways than one. Zoom had destroyed me and shattered my confidence. I felt powerless. I doubted myself, just like you doubt yourself now.” He said, pausing for a moment to let the sincerity of his words sink in before continuing. “I’m going to tell you the same thing my father told me. You have to embrace that defeat. Accepting it is the only way to move forward. Because if you can survive that, and learn to believe in yourself again, then you can survive everything.”

Silence reigned supreme in the room for an extended moment, until finally he got up and looked down at her, reaching out to place a hand on her shoulder before giving it a comforting squeeze. “Conquer your fears. Believe in yourself.” He said softly, echoing the very same words his father had spoken to him a lifetime ago. She smiled up at him, and he tightened his grip on her shoulder before letting go and stepping back, moving over to the control panel and opening the pipeline. Turning around one last time to see Nora standing up and peering over at him, he smiled over at her reassuringly. “You’ll be fine.” He said confidently before turning back around and zooming back down the pipeline, doing a few laps around the entirety of it before launching himself into the Speed Force.

Barry knew better than anyone than an hour in the Speed Force is a hell of a long time, but he knew in his heart that his daughter could handle things in his absence. He believed in her, all she needed to do was believe in herself.

-

“Fifty-two times?” He asked calmly, the events of the day rendering him too tired to act as shocked as he was feeling. Nora inhaled deeply in through her nose as she avoided eye contact, slowly leaning forward against the counter to gingerly clutch at the coffee cup in front of her in a nervous gesture. She continued to awkwardly run her slender fingers around the ceramic cup as her gaze shifted constantly between him and the counter as she spoke. “Fifty-three, if you include now.” She said timidly, like a child that was afraid to be scolded.

He grimaced slightly at that as he looked at her. “That’s.. A lot.” He mumbled quietly, and he smiled warmly at her as she turned to look at him, uncertainty coloring the features of her face. “What was I supposed to do, let one of them die?” She questioned cautiously, and he sighed at her words as he leaned up against the counter, crossing his arms over the surface of it. He shook his head as he cast his gaze downwards, not knowing how to answer. He didn’t blame her. Hell, he would have done the same thing, most likely. In fact he already had done similar acts in the past. But she needed to understand the repercussions of time travel from someone who was unfortunately well acquainted with them.

A moment of silence passed through the room during his internal dialogue until finally he spoke up. “The thing is, Nora, there are consequences to time travel.” He said sagely, and she continued to look down at her cup as she mumbled softly under her breath in response. “Oh, I know..” He shook his head. “No, you don’t. Not like I do.” At that, she looked up at him again, and the sadness on her face pulled at his heart strings. All he wanted to do was comfort her and cheer her up, but he needed to do this first. He sighed, turning away his gaze as he pondered how best to explain it to her. He grinned to himself as he thought back to how Jay had explained it to him, and he reached out and grabbed his coffee cup on the counter.

“Let me show you something.” He said as he gulped down the now lukewarm coffee before setting it back down, clutching it in his hand while gesturing to it with his other as he turned to face Nora. “Imagine this coffee cup, is the space-time continuum. Whenever you go back in time,” he paused a moment as he vibrated his hand at super speed, making a piece shatter and fall onto the counter. “It breaks.” He finished before picking up the broken piece and beginning to set it back in place where it had fallen, speaking all the meanwhile. “Now, you can try and reset the timeline, try and fix, but no matter how hard you try – it’s never gonna be exactly how it was.”

He withdrew his hands from the cup to show the crack that was still visible before crossing his arms on top of the counter again. “It seems like things worked out this time, but that’s not always gonna be true. And it’s impossible to know how these changes are gonna unfold, the ripples you’ll cause, whose life you’re gonna affect.” He sighed, turning to look at her again to convey the sincerity of his next words. “No one can do that.” She furrowed her brow, looking deep in thought for a moment before she spoke. “No one?”

He smiled warmly at her, shaking his head as he answered the hidden question in her words. “No one.” He confirmed, “We’re not gods, Nora. We’ve just been given extraordinary abilities.” She pursed her lips, nodding faintly in reply as she remained quiet for an extended moment until she broke the silence. “You always talk about avoiding making changes to the timeline. Is that something you’ve done a lot..?” He smirked slightly to himself, bobbing an easy nod in reply before verbalizing his answer. “Yeah. I have.” He answered tentatively. “You once asked me when I followed you back in time if I ever thought about stopping the death of my mother. The truth is, I already did.”

Nora quirked a brow as she shifted in her chair to have her body face him, trying not so hard to conceal her brimming interest, and he sighed as he turned to face her as well with one arm propped up against the counter. “It was years ago, back when I first got my powers and learned Wells was actually Thawne. Not-Wells offered me a way to save my mom, and in exchange he’d get to go back to his time. At first I accepted, and I went there, but I ended up changing my mind.” Nora nodded slowly, believing the story to be over when he suddenly continued. “And then after Zoom killed my father, I tried again. I went back to that night and I stopped the Reverse-Flash from killing my mother – creating an alternate timeline. Flashpoint.”

“I spent a few months there. I started to lose my memory of the original timeline, and eventually I would’ve lost my speed if I’d stayed. One thing led to another, and I changed my mind again.” He explained, skipping over the part where he had to beg the Reverse-Flash to kill his mother. His heart lurched in his chest at the memory, and he paused his story as he looked down at his lap until he felt a hand come to rest on top of his. He looked up at Nora who peered at him sympathetically, and he smiled thankfully as he grabbed her hand in his, giving it a soft squeeze before continuing. “Because of that decision, I changed people’s lives for the worse. Cisco’s brother died, Diggle now has a son instead of a daughter – and Savitar was created.”

He sighed heavily, and he gave Nora a weak smile who seemed to be busy absorbing all the information he was throwing at her, so he continued. “I learned the hard way about the consequences of time travel. It’s not something I want you to have to go through.” He finished explaining, and she smiled warmly at him, clearly appreciating the sentiment, and he returned it in kind with a smile of his own. “That’s enough of that now.” He said as he abruptly got up from his seat, and she looked up at him with a confused expression. “All that running must have you starved. Come on, let’s get some food in you.” He answered her silent question, and he grinned when he saw her face light up before excitedly hopping up herself. “Ooo, how about that shake and pizza place we saw near Happy Harbor?” He chuckled softly at that and nodded as he started walking towards the exit.

“I’ll race you there.” He said cheekily before running off at super speed, and he smiled to his right as he saw her catch up to him. In that moment, with electricity pumping to every nerve in his body as he ran, and the adorable look Nora was giving him – he was pretty sure he’d never been more happy with his life than he was now.

With her in it.

-

He leaned forward on his right heel as he came to a halt just around the corner from the restaurant, needing only to turn around to find Nora coming to a stop in front of him less than a second later. He smirked at her as she hunched over, placing her hands on her bent knees as she caught her breath for a moment before looking up quizzically at him. “How are you not out of breath?” She panted out, and he simply hefted his shoulders in a lazy shrug, his smirk only growing wider. “What can I say? I’ve been at this longer than you.” He let loose a soft chuckle at the exaggerated frown she put on display, shaking his head amusedly as he walked past her, momentarily lifting his hand to pat her on the shoulder. “Come on, I’m starving.”

He heard a sigh from Nora behind him as he made his way around the corner and to the restaurant. It was still pretty bright out, so it was easy to make out the details of the exterior. It was a 50s style themed restaurant from the looks of it, and this was only confirmed as he walked in and took in his surroundings. Black and white square floor tiles, red furniture with streaks of white, bland gray tables, booths both circular and straight along the walls, and an almost comically cartoonish menu set-up with ketchup and mustard on every table. It was definitely a 50s style theme, through and through. He always liked these sort of places. They had a certain charm to them. A perfect place for a family dinner.

The place was pretty sparse at the moment. It was bright out still, but it was getting late, and most people came here during the afternoon for lunch or breakfast. He didn’t complain, though. He could use the peace and quiet. He never liked the restaurants where everyone kept talking over each other louder and louder just for the intended recipient to hear what they’re saying. And after today’s events, he just wanted to have a calm conversation with Nora and something nice to eat.

Spotting a particularly comfy-looking circular booth in the far-left corner of the place, he nodded in its direction with an up-tick of his chin to point it out to Nora before walking over, offering yet another nod of acknowledgement at the employee working the counter as he sat down – Nora plopping down right next to him. Reaching a hand over for the menu, he passed one over to her before flipping one open to look through himself, his eyes squinting slightly to make out the unnecessarily small letters. His eyes widened slightly at the options available to him, and he shared a knowing look with Nora as they smiled at one another.

They were going to be eating a lot.

-

He let out a guttural groan as he leaned back in the booth, his hands resting firmly on his stomach as he took a moment to recover from his overzealous eating binge, and he craned his neck to his right to see Nora adopting a similar pose next to him as she let out a sigh while she gingerly moved her soda to her mouth to drink through the straw. He chuckled slightly at how adorable she looked, and she quirked a confused brow in his direction as she put her drink back on the table. “What?” She said almost defensively, and he shook his head equally as defensively as he pursed his lips, gesturing simply to the abnormal amount of empty food containers laid out in front of them, most of them being hers.

She shrugged as she looked down at her lap guiltily. “You said it yourself, I’ve been running a lot today. I was hungry.” She said in a quiet tone, almost embarrassed, and he smiled reassuringly her way as he straightened up in his seat so as not to slouch. He breathed in deeply through his nose as he crossed his arms over his chest, sparing another glance in Nora’s direction to see her looking at him weirdly, and he raised a quirked brow in a silent inquiry for her to explain, and finally she squinted at him suspiciously before answering. “You were letting me win during the race, weren’t you?” She asked skeptically, and he scoffed slightly in an exaggerated manner. “Me? I’d never.” He jested, and she frowned humorously at him.

“You know, you don’t have to baby me to make me feel better. There’s no shame in losing a race to the fastest man alive.” She said with a mixture of sincerity and humor, and he smiled at her in return. The truth is, he could’ve run a hell of a lot faster than he had been, but he’d let her pass him about half-way over here. Less out of pity than to help boost her self-confidence. He didn’t want her feeling inadequate like he’d felt back when he was being outrun by every other speedster he was encountering when he’d first gotten his speed. That, and he wasn’t in the habit of running as fast as possible all the time. It was tiring. Not to mention the damage it did to his surroundings when he ruptured the sound barrier.

“I know. But I’m glad you’re not bitter about it. As you well know, I didn’t get to where I am now in a day.” She smiled softly in his direction, and he mirrored it with a smile of his own. He perked up at the sound of footsteps, turning his head to see the waitress from earlier walking over to their table, and he glanced in Nora’s direction to see her straighten up in her seat as well. He smiled in a friendly manner at the young blonde woman as she stopped in front of their booth, smiling so brightly at them he knew that she was definitely happy with working here, although the smile disappeared as she widened her eyes in disbelief at the sheer amount of empty plates on their table. He rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly, somewhat embarrassed.

They’d had the foresight to cut back a bit on their usual food consumption so as to not raise too many questions, but even then they’d still ate a lot by normal people’s standards. He looked to his right to see Nora practically sink into her seat as if to try and hide her embarrassment from the waitress, but the stranger simply laughed incredulously, and he chuckled nervously along with her. “Wow. Rough day?” The woman quipped, and he laughed lightly at her remark, nodding in confirmation of her suspicion. “Try rough week.” He answered humorously in kind, narrowing his eyes a bit on the name tag on her chest to make out the name ‘Ashley’ before looking back up at her just in time to see her shrug.

“Well, I’m not one to judge. You do you.” She said, mirth coloring the tone of her voice as she started piling empty plates onto the platter she was holding until she couldn’t fit any more on the heap that’d built up on it. “I guess I’ll make a second trip.” He nodded, grinning over at Nora at the humor of their situation when he heard the waitress speak up again. “Can I just say,” She began, and he shifted his gaze over to the blonde as she spoke a bit apprehensively, “You two make a really cute couple.” She finished saying, and he opened his mouth to try and correct her, only to be cut off by Nora as she spoke over him. “Oh we’re not—” He began awkwardly, “Thank you. We appreciate it.” Nora finished on his behalf as she leaned over to hug his right arm closer to her, tilting her head to look up at the waitress as she rested her head on his shoulder with a bright smile on her face.

He opened his mouth for a moment to say something, but quickly closed it, not trusting his words in that moment as he simply nodded in agreement before the waitress smiled at them and walked away. He turned to look at Nora as soon as the waitress was out of earshot, looking at her questioningly, and she simply smiled innocently at him. Oh no, she wasn’t getting away with it that easily. “What was that?” He asked quietly, yet firmly, looking at her for an answer as she sighed almost annoyed before explaining. “Come on, we never get to be affectionate with each other in public. Nobody here knows us. Just relax and go with it. Please?” She asked hopefully, peering up at him with those adorable puppy eyes of hers and he sighed in surrender to which she immediately smiled in recognition of its meaning.

“Alright, but we still need to be careful.” He said resignedly, and her smile grew wider to hear his answer verbalized. She scooched closer to press herself up against him, and he looked up to see the waitress walking back over to collect the rest of the plates. “Say, I don’t think I’ve seen you two here before. You guys from around here?” The blonde asked curiously, clearly just making small talk, but he answered courteously nonetheless. “No, we’re from out of town. Just decided to drop in and try the food in this place.” He explained, and the woman nodded softly in acknowledgement of his words. He smirked slightly as he looked at all the empty plates. “As you can probably guess, we weren’t disappointed.” He quipped, and the woman giggled at his remark, nodding agreeably at his observation.

He froze as he felt something touch his crotch, and he looked down to see Nora’s hand caressing him through his jeans. He quickly looked up so as to not raise suspicion, glaring slightly at Nora who was just smiling and acting all innocent as if she wasn’t doing anything at all. ‘This woman’s going to be the death of me,’ he thought to himself as he shifted a bit awkwardly in his seat to try and make himself more comfortable, trying his utmost not to seem strange. “Well we’re about to close up soon, but you two can stay a bit longer if you’d like. You seem like nice enough people. I’ll leave you a copy of the key. Just remember to lock up and leave it in the flowerpot outside before you leave.” The waitress said before reaching into her pocket and placing a key down on the table in front of them.

He widened his eyes in surprise as she reached over to slide the key over to him, nodding in thanks to the woman as he picked it up and pocketed it. “Wow, um, thank you. We won’t be long.” He replied thankfully, squirming a bit under Nora’s touch as he felt her hand slip into his jeans before snaking under the waistband of his boxers to clutch him in her hand, and he had to stop himself from flinching as she felt her slender fingers wrap around his length. He breathed in deeply through his nose as he addressed the waitress again. “Um, I don’t think, anyway.” He corrected himself, looking knowingly at Nora as he pondered what she had in store for them. “No problem. I’ll just finish cleaning up and get out of your guys hair.”

He turned to look at the blonde again, nodding with a small smile in her direction to which the woman returned before turning around and walking away again. The moment he could no longer see her he gripped Nora by the wrist, glaring at her as he whispered warningly in a hushed town. “Jesus, Nora. Once wasn’t enough? How many times are you going to pull this stunt?” She smiled teasingly back at him, seemingly not deterred, although he could’ve sworn he heard her breath hitch in her chest. “Come on, daddy,” she whispered into his ear in a sultry tone as she gingerly moved her hand up and down in slow, short strokes. “I know you want it.”

He growled lowly under his breath, unable to refute her claims as he felt his desire flare to life with every jerk of his cock. Nora did dangerous things to him. He cast a cautious glance in the direction the woman had went, making sure she wasn’t privy to their current actions or conversation before turning back to look at Nora with unmasked want, his gaze flickering between her gorgeous brown eyes and appetizing lips. He let out a slow, shaky breath as she bit softly down on her lower lip, his cock throbbing at the arousing sight as they stared into one another’s eyes. If he’d been thinking clearly he might’ve thought to speed them off some place else, but he was far from rational in that moment. All he could think about was releasing his pent-up desires, and the woman in front of him he wanted to release them upon.

Giving her a small nod in a gesture to continue, Nora’s smile widened before she fished his cock out of his pants, her pupils dilating as his glorious length was exposed to her view. He barely stopped himself from bending her over the table right then and there as she unconsciously wet her lips with a swipe of her tongue, her eyes fixed on his shaft as she seemed to freeze in place as if to take the time to admire it. Growing increasingly impatient, he reached out and cradled the back of her head, wrapping a fistful of her hair around his hand before forcefully pushing her head down to his crotch. Needing no further encouragement, she immediately got to work, her tongue darting out to experimentally lick at the beaded pre-cum that had begun to form on the tip before abandoning foreplay altogether and immediately taking him into her mouth.

He breathed out a low, guttural groan as she got to work, bobbing her head up and down his cock as her tongue swirled around it in circles, avoiding her last mistake as she slowly took him further and further down her throat rather than attempting to abruptly take it all in one-go as she’d done before. His cock twitched in her mouth as her tongue brushed against a particularly sensitive spot near the head of his shaft, Nora letting out a low moan around a mouthful of his cock before withdrawing backwards to let it pop out of her mouth, only to immediately tilt her head to the side to run her open mouth back and forth along his shaft, wetting it further with her saliva before once again engulfing his length with her welcoming mouth.

Her sloppy blowjob continued this way for a good while, and in that moment he was incredibly grateful for the quiet 50s music playing in the background that luckily muffled most of the slurping noises that threatened to block out the song entirely as her lewd ministrations only got louder and louder as time went on. He felt the hairs on his body stand up as a shiver ran down his spine at the sound of footsteps, and he looked up in time to see the waitress from before turning the corner as she walked into the room. Luckily the circular booth mostly hid Nora from the woman’s line of sight due to where she was standing, but he wasn’t about to take any chances. He quickly utilized his grip on the back of Nora’s head and forcefully pushed her further down his cock to try and hide her better from view until he felt the head of his dick bump up against the back of her throat – drawing a low cough and sputter from Nora as her hands flew up to press against his thighs to try and push herself off him.

He refused to let up, however, holding her head firmly in place despite her protests and attempts to resist. She suddenly froze in place as she undoubtedly realized the reason for his actions when she heard the sound of the waitress’ voice. “Oh, you’re still here. I was just about to lock up, but like I said you can stay a bit longer if you wish.” The woman said in a kind tone as she took off her apron and hung it up on a nearby hanger that jutted out from a wall behind the counter next to the double doors leading into what he assumed was the kitchen. He nodded simply, giving her the friendliest and most nonchalant smile he could muster to try and avoid suspicion. “Where’s your uh, friend?” She questioned, sounding almost too interested despite her obvious attempt to sound the opposite.

He didn’t miss her obvious disregard for the word ‘girlfriend’ despite what Nora had told her earlier, but he wasn’t exactly in a position to question it when the tiniest slip up meant her seeing Nora sucking his cock in the middle of the diner. He had to keep her on that side of the restaurant for as long as he could while he waited for Nora to, uh, ‘finish’. His mind went into overdrive as he thought about an excuse, the adrenaline pumping through his veins at the risky predicament he’d found himself in until he blurted out the first plausible explanation that popped into his head. “Oh, she uh, went to the bathroom.” He said as he tried best to steel his nerves, the wonderful feeling of his cock shoved deep down Nora’s throat making it quite difficult.

The blonde nodded silently, seemingly satisfied with the lie. He squinted slightly as she seemed to squirm a bit, averting her eyes away from him as if deep in thought until her gaze came to rest once again on him, looking like she wanted to say something. “Look, um..” She began to say before he could ask her what it was she was contemplating, “I don’t usually do this but..” He quirked a brow, his confusion showing on his face as he waited for her to continue. “I don’t know what the deal is between the two of you, but it sounded like you were about to say the two of you weren’t a couple earlier.” His mouth went slack a bit, his eyes widening as realization dawned over him where she was getting at.

The expression on his face quickly morphed from surprise to disbelief as he narrowed his gaze questioningly at the woman. Was she..? “Maybe I’m just reading too much into it, or maybe I’m just seeing what it is that I want to see, but..” He blinked twice, resisting the urge to pinch himself to make sure this was actually happening. ‘Oh my God. Is she actually coming onto me?’ He thought to himself, shocked at the events currently unfolding. Nora seemed equally scandalized as she let out a moan of protest as she tried once again to take him out of her mouth, clearly not comfortable with the fact that he was being flirted with while she was sucking on his cock. It seemed like a bad plot from a porno or a terrible fanfiction.

“Look, you’re really cute, and.. God, I’m making an idiot of myself. Okay, I’m just going to leave my number here on the counter, so if I’m right, give me call, alright?” He blinked twice again, still having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that this was actually happening as she wrote down what he assumed was her number on a napkin and put it down on the aforementioned counter. He opened his mouth to answer, but he couldn’t make any words come out, so he just stared at her slack jawed as he tried to muster up a reply. She was cute, that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that not only was he married, but he was also having an affair with his own daughter who was currently bent over in the booth giving him head as he was having this one-sided conversation. He wasn’t exactly in a position to go on a date with anyone, let alone a random stranger.

“You don’t have to say anything right now.” She said hastily, clearly nervous, and he was quick to accept her generous offer, closing his mouth shut. “Just.. Give me a call. If you’d want to, I mean.” He nodded ever so slowly at her words, not knowing what to say in this ridiculous situation he’d found himself in. He couldn’t stop himself from flinching as he suddenly felt Nora continue what she’d started with renewed enthusiasm, her tongue doing most of the work as to not alert the woman to what she was doing, only moving her head up and down ever so slightly to start with before abruptly pushing her head downwards and taking him even further down her warm, tight throat.

“Are you alright..?” The woman asked, sounding almost concerned, and he drew a deep breath before answering the question. “Mhm! Yeah, just, caught me off guard, is all.” He said, the words coming out more croaked than he’d meant them to, unable to keep the coarse roughness from entering the tone of his voice as Nora brought him a breath away from the edge. Nora made a guttural gagging sound, and he quickly balled up his fist and brought it to his mouth to fake a cough into to try and mask the noise. The woman nodded slowly, and he shot her a very forced smile, hoping it didn’t look as stupid as he thought it did.

“Right well, I better get going. I’ll.. Maybe see you?” She said almost hopefully, her hands awkwardly brushing together as she hitched a shoulder in a nervous gesture reminiscent of Nora – the thought coupled with Nora’s skillful blowjob being enough to push him over the edge. He shot up a bit straighter in his seat as he felt his muscles twitch when he reached his climax, his hand subconsciously pushing Nora’s head even further down his cock as he emptied wave after wave of his cum down her throat, forcing her to swallow it all at the risk of otherwise choking. “Mhm! Yeah!” He blurted out a bit too loudly in reply to the blonde’s question, and he tried his best to shield his face with his hands from her scrutinizing and questioning gaze.

He whispered a quiet ‘fuck’ into the palm of his hand, making sure the woman doesn’t see or hear it. Nodding awkwardly, the blonde circled the counter and made for the exit in a hasty manner while avoiding to look at him – no doubt eager to retreat from the awkward atmosphere that had built between them. He quickly reached for his crumpled-up jacket next to him and threw it over Nora’s head to try and hide her in case she did throw one last glance in his direction. Thankfully, the uncomfortable conversation they’d just shared seemed to be enough for the woman to avoid doing that, as she simply left as she fumbled with putting on her jacket.

He watched as the woman flipped around the open and closed sign so that it showed the latter on the outside before walking off, and he let out a sigh of relief the moment he could no longer see her through the window as she disappeared into the evening shadows. “It’s clear.” He said softly as he let go of Nora’s head, no longer seeing the need to muffle his voice, and she immediately came up for air at what had to be the non-speedster equivalent of super speed, gasping for breath as she coughed and spluttered. He shot her a remorseful look, wincing slightly as her eyes teared up from the lack of oxygen, her hand swiping her lips to clear her face of the saliva that had accumulated there.

He simply stared at her as he waited for her to recover, patting her softly on the back to try and show support, until finally she calmed down and looked over at him with an expression he couldn’t quite discern. He wasn’t sure whether it was anger, or something else entirely. He pursed his lips as he waited for her to say something, and finally she did. “Was she **seriously** flirting with you after I told her we were a couple?” She exclaimed a bit too loudly, and he winced slightly at her anger before letting out another sigh of relief. He thought maybe she was angry at him, but it appeared his concern was unfounded as she seemed to be directing her fury solely at the blonde that had just left.

“You’re not angry with me?” He inquired hesitantly with a pinch of regret in his tone, thinking that maybe he shouldn’t be looking a gift horse in the mouth, but he couldn’t help but ask. She simply quirked a brow, a look of confusion overtaking her face. “Why would I be?” She retorted in a genuine tone, as if not understanding why she should be angry. “Well, because I pushed you down.” He clarified, preparing himself for the incoming fallout that never came as she simply smiled at him, apparently amused. “Oh God, no. That was really hot.” He blinked twice, dumbfounded at her reaction for a moment before he chuckled softly. Of course that’d be something she’d be into.

He shook his head as a grin crept up onto the corners of his face, the rapid beating of his heart starting to slow down a bit by speedster standards as the adrenaline subsided. “Besides, if you hadn’t she might’ve seen me, and then we would’ve had one hell of an explanation to give, huh?” He chuckled again, nodding at her assessment. “Yes, yes we would have.” He said agreeably, and she giggled adorably in reply, to which he smiled at. Her soft, angelic voice was like music to his ears, especially when she laughed. Suddenly Nora’s expression changed to one he’d seen several times before. The look of someone who was planning something. “Alright, what is it, what are you thinking about doing?” He asked hesitantly, sighing exhaustedly in trepidation of her no doubt nefarious intentions.

She simply shot him another one of her ‘innocent’ smiles. “Hmm.. Well I was thinking.. we do have the place to ourselves. There’s no need for us to stop just yet. The night is still young, after all.” He let out an amused puff of air through his nose. ‘Of course. Insatiable little minx.’ He thought to himself as he looked back at her curiously, contemplating whether or not to take up her offer. “Well, I suppose it would be a shame for us to let an opportunity like this slip through our fingers.” He answered, and he could see the excitement spike in her eyes at his words which brought a smile to his face. “Well, what are we waiting for, daddy? Come fuck your little girl.” She said softly with her delicate, angelic voice which wasn’t at all fitting for the lewd words being spoken, but nonetheless his body began to move of its own volition towards her.

His lips were less than an inch away from hers when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, and his eyes closed shut for a moment in irritation as he let out an exasperated sigh before he opened them again to peer into Nora’s eyes. He gave her a knowing look, and she simply let out a sigh a lot like his one before bobbing a soft nod in permission. “Go ahead.” She said, the disappointment and frustration evident in the tone of her voice, but her eyes shone with understanding. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone to look at the culprit that had so ruined their moment and sighing again once he saw what it was.

“Meta-human alert.” He muttered out quietly before looking up from his phone and back at her who simply nodded, giving him a reassuring smile. “Well what are we waiting for? Let’s go get him, Flash.” She said as excitedly as she could muster, yet once again the discontent was evident in her voice. He gave her a faint smile. “Rain check?” He asked hopefully in an attempt to lessen the blow of their evening being cut short, and she smiled wider in response and nodded again, this time with authentic enthusiasm. Comforted by her reaction that he hadn’t completely ruined their night, he gave her a genuine smile as he rose to his feet, grabbing his jacket as he got up. “Race you there, XS.” He said in the same cheeky manner as earlier that evening before speeding off with Nora only a couple steps behind, quickly locking up and putting the key in the flowerpot as instructed before zooming off towards Central City with her in tow.

Being a superhero sometimes meant your free time being trampled upon, but he promised himself he’d make it up to her when he could.

Besides, he still owed her a punishment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we have it. Some 'plot' and smut thrown in together. Smut was a bit short and vague, but the focus wasn't necessarily meant to be on that to begin with. It'll be a bigger presence in future chapters. Believe it or not, I do actually have an outline drawn out for where I want to take this story.
> 
> Also, sorry for the tease at the end. The chapter was getting a bit long as it was without another smut scene being thrown in. I'll make it up to you another time. 
> 
> Until then.
> 
> P.S. I haven't proof-read this chapter cause I'm tired, so there are bound to be mistakes somewhere. I'll fix it when I'm not half-dead. Sorry not sorry.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I started writing this chapter the day after I posted Chapter 4, and I finished it in the same day I started. I was originally going to store it for a week before posting it, but after waiting a day I thought fuck it, here it is early. Consider it reimbursement for how long it took for me to post Chapter 4. 
> 
> This chapter takes place between S05E17 and S05E20 and starts off with Barry finding out the truth about Nora. I thought about stretching it out, but I'm not one for stretching plot to its last thread, and I didn't want to leave things on a cliffhanger.
> 
> Also, no smut this chapter. Sorry. Didn't feel right considering what's happening in the chapter.
> 
> Enjoy.

“Nora, you coming?” She looked up at the sound of her dad’s voice as the whole team prepared to leave the cortex to get drinks, a multitude of different feelings crashing together inside her and forming what felt like a gaping wormhole inside her as she saw the carefree, expectant look on Barry’s face. The longer she stared at him, the more conflicted she became. She’d made up her mind that she wanted to finally tell everyone the truth, especially her dad, but looking at him now she wasn’t sure she had the strength to do it. She opened her mouth to try and force the words out, but ultimately came up empty, unable to form so much as an audible sound. Her guilty heart tugged at her, begging her to come clean, but she couldn’t. For the same reason she never could before. She couldn’t bring herself to let down Barry down. Her dad, her hero. She just couldn’t.

“Nora.” She heard Cecile say somewhere in the outermost edges of her mind’s perceptive range, the world practically fading from view as she stared at her dad and only her dad with a tunnel vision. “You want to tell us something, don’t you?” Cecile finished, and that was enough to momentarily tear her out of her trance to look over at the woman. Even after being given a window of opportunity like that, she still couldn’t speak. It was like she’d gotten mute, her mind and heart at war as they battled for dominance over her vocal cords. She flicked her gaze back over towards Barry for a moment, the confused look on his face tugging at the strings of her heart. She couldn’t. She couldn’t tell him. It’d destroy him.

“She wants to tell you her secret.” She heard the familiar French accent of Sherloque say, and her heart skipped a beat as she realized she wasn’t getting out of this. The whole group turned to look at their famous detective for answers, confusion all equally spread over their features as they tried to work their brain around what was happening. “Right? She doesn’t know where to start.” He said again, and finally she made peace with the fact that this conversation was inevitable. She needed to tell them, him. “Difficult to know where to begin when your secret threatens everything..” Sherloque continued as he circled around the desk, and panic once again began to set in. He was going to tell them. No, no, she couldn’t let that happen. It needed to be from her, or it’d be so much worse.

“Everyone around you.” She took a step forward, her voice taking on a harsh tone as anger began to brew inside her. This wasn’t the time for him to show off. “Sherloque, stop it.” She hissed out, but he wasn’t deterred as he just continued to give his speech. “Maybe start at the beginning. It’s a very good place to start. When you first time-traveled, so careful to leave the lightest footprint. Until you suddenly change course, and brazenly interfere with the Thinker satellite as it crashed to earth.” He continued, waving his hands around in vague gestures as he gave his exposition.

“I think to myself.. Nope, nope, this.. excessive action doesn’t make sense. Until you understand that – it wasn’t your idea.” She shook her head, desperation clawing at her insides as tears began to well in her eyes. “Please stop.” She practically whispered pleadingly to him, but he simply stared back at her with a smug yet simultaneously neutral expression, clearly not moved as her pleas fell on deaf ears. “Someone instructed you to do it.” She gritted her teeth, her desperation turning to anger at his blatant disregard for the severity of his actions. “Stop.” She hissed out, but again he ignored her begging. “Someone, whose handwriting is in your journal.”

Her eyes widened in terror as he suddenly reached into his jacket and pulled out her journal. He couldn’t have deciphered it. He couldn’t have. “Someone who wrote; ‘The timeline is malleable.’ The same person who’s been directing you all this time, making puppets of all of us as he seeks to alter the timeline to suit his own purpose..” She shook her head faintly in one last silent plea for him to stop, but it was too late. It had gone too far. And now she had to deal with the consequences.

“Eobard Thawne.”

Her heart skipped a beat again, anxiety and guilt binding together like a whirlpool that sucked out all joy and hope from her body. She could only barely shake her head ever so faintly before casting her gaze downwards in regret. “The Reverse-Flash. Your teacher. Your partner. Your secret.” She couldn’t recall a time in her life where she’d ever been more terrified in her life than she was now. She couldn’t bear to look up and see their disappointed faces. His face. She couldn’t. “Nora.” She heard her mother say, and she hesitantly looked up at them with all of her willpower. “Please tell us this isn’t true.” Iris begged, more fear in her voice than anger. Her gaze swept over the entire group in silence, taking in the aftermath of her deception. Cisco, Joe, Cecile, her mom, Caitlin, Ralph..

Her eyes finally landed on her dad, and the look of utter betrayal reflected on his face made her insides lurch at the side. She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t move. She could only stare at him, memorizing every detail of his face like it could be the last time she’d see them. She almost expected to fade out of existence right there and then, thinking this was the last straw that’d make her never be born. It would almost be salvation, freedom from her current predicament. It never came, and the little hope that sprung from that revelation was no balm to her wounded heart. “She can’t..” Her dad finally spoke, his voice just above a whisper as tears welled in his eyes. “Dad..” She herself muttered out in fear, the dead silence in the room the only reason the whisper could be heard.

“Because it is true.” He said finally, disbelief coloring the tone of his voice. Disbelief and betrayal. Her distress grew even more as she felt the irresistible urge to fix this as fast as possible. “Mom..?” She muttered out again as if for help, but it never came. She just stared at her, and it only caused her to panic even more. Her heartbeat sped up, and her breathing got louder and more frequent as she just barely stopped herself from hyperventilating. “I wanted to tell you. I-I tried to tell you—” All she saw was a flash of lightning and the moment she blinked she found herself in a cell in the pipeline. She looked around in shock for a moment before looking through the glass pane in the door at her dad as he slowly backed away from her.

“Dad! Dad, please!” She begged, but he didn’t listen. He just turned around and began to walk away, and her heart shattered into a million pieces at the sight. “Dad! I’m sorry I lied to you!” She yelled out, and he finally stopped, his back still turned to her for a couple seconds longer before he turned around to look at her, betrayal plastered all over his face. “So am I.” He croaked out, his voice cracking under the weight of the sadness she’d inflicted upon him. He turned his back to her again and walked away, and she finally broke down into a fit of tears. “Dad..” She whimpered out before collapsing to her knees with her face buried in her hands.

She rocked herself back and forth as she sobbed into the palm of her hands as she internally berated herself for what she’d done.

She’d ruined everything.

** Barry: **

Betrayed. He felt betrayed. They’d just finished going through Nora’s journal before Iris went and freed her from her cell so they could hear the story from her own lips, but he couldn’t bring himself to look at her as she explained her actions. He could only listen in silence, register the words as she spoke them as he weighed his options. Cisco seemed to be the only one who was more or less on his side. Iris occupied the opposite side of the argument, desperately wanting to believe that Nora’s deception wasn’t born of malice but rather desperation. But it didn’t matter. He knew she hadn’t meant to hurt him on purpose. But she had. She’d lied since the very first day she got here.

What else had she lied about?

The thought threatened to break him, and he couldn’t afford to be broken, so he swept it aside. He finally looked up at his daughter after she’d finished telling her story, his arms crossed over his chest as he studied her expression. He could see the guilt there. The regret. But it didn’t matter. It was too late for that now. “Can I have a minute alone with Nora?” He muttered out questioningly just loud enough to be heard, and he had to force himself to look away as Nora peered over at him. He couldn’t look her in the eye right now. Not yet. “Of course.” Iris answered as everyone started leaving the room, Cecile giving Nora a pat on the shoulder as she walked past her.

He slowly circled the desk to be on the same side as she saw, shifting his weight to lean back against it, one hand clutching at the edge of the counter to try and steel himself. He finally looked up at her, her hands folded over the other in front of her as she stood up straight like a criminal on a witness stand. It was a heartbreaking sight, but he couldn’t let himself think that way right now. He needed to be strong. “How many times did you go back to Thawne?” He said hesitantly, yet firmly, finally voicing the question that had been on his mind since she’d finished her story. “How many times..?” She muttered out almost confused.

“After the night of the Enlightenment.” He clarified, and she briefly averted her gaze, looking everywhere but at him as she answered. “Five, uh, maybe six..” His head dropped down to look at the floor as she gave him the answer to the question he’d been dreading, letting out a quiet sigh through his nose. Six times. She’d gone back to him six times. “Even knowing he killed my mother?” He said finally after a moment of silence as he looked up at her again, unable to keep the judgement out of his voice. “Dad--..” She began, but he wasn’t having any of it. Nothing she could say could fix what she’d done. “I understand..” He started, cutting her off immediately, “Coming back to meet me. And the team. I do. I even understand going to Thawne..” He continued, his blood beginning to boil at so much the mention of **his** name, his left-hand clenching around the edge of the desk, his knuckles going white at the pressure.

“To learn how to do it, but.. You kept going back.” She looked down guiltily as he looked at her accusingly, the hurt seeping into his voice. “Even after you knew what he did, even after he wasn’t your only option anymore.” He shut his eyes for a moment of respite from the emotional roller coaster he’d unfortunately found a first-class ticket onto before opening them again to continue. “And the worst part is, you lied to us every time.”

_‘To me’,_ he left unsaid.

“D-Dad I..” She began to say again, but he cut her off again. He didn’t want to hear her apologize or try and explain why she did what she did. He knew. And it wouldn’t help. “If you lied about that, then who knows what else you lied about? How do I know that everything that happened.. Between us.. Wasn’t just some sick, twisted part of Thawne’s plan? Was any of it even real?” He said harshly, and the look of hurt that washed over Nora’s face would have been enough to make him hold her in his arms and apologize on any other day. But this wasn’t any other day. “Of course it was--..”

“I don’t trust you, Nora.” He said firmly with renewed determination, cutting her off as he began to realize what needed to be done. “I can’t have anybody here with us that I don’t trust anymore.” He finished, and she furrowed her brows in confusion as she looked at him questioningly. “W-What are you saying?” She asked, her voice tender and hoarse from the crying. “It’s time for you to go home.” He answered, Nora’s eyes widening in fear as he opened her mouth to speak, but he immediately sped forward, grabbing her before she could react and launching himself forward in time with her in his arms.

In no time it all he exited the Speed Force in the middle of some city square, letting her go a bit too quickly, not wanting to touch her longer than he needed at the risk of changing his mind. She stumbled a bit from the momentum she’d been released at before turning to look at him, her body shaking as anxiety visibly rocked through her body. “Dad, please don’t do this!” She pleaded with teary eyes, and he forced himself to look away from her as he pretended to look around. He couldn’t bear to look at her. His resolve was weak enough as it was. “I promise I will never see Thawne again!” At that statement he looked back at her again, staring at her in silence as he absorbed every curve and detail of her beautiful face, storing it to memory while he could.

“Dad don’t do this! Please, I love you!” She continued to beg, but he closed himself off from it. He couldn’t trust her. “Nora, if you try to run back in time again, I will feel it in the Speed Force. I’ll know.” He explained as mechanically as possible, careful not to let any of the emotion he was feeling flood into his voice. “Goodbye, Nora.” He said painfully, the last thing he heard being the sound of her ragged breaths before he zoomed off.

He had one last stop to make before he went back.

He quickly ran over to the future’s Iron Heights, phasing through the walls as needed until he found himself outside **his** cell. Eobard Thawne. He stared at the back of his head, gritting his teeth to try and stem the tide of anger that threatened to flood his self-control. “So she finally came clean.” He heard him say in Harrison Wells’ voice. Even with that voice, he knew it was him. Only Thawne could speak in that tone. “Or did you figure it out all by yourself?” He inquired as he slowly turned around, his hands buried into the top of his vest as he looked at him with that smug, cocky smile on his face.

“One wasn’t enough?” He seethed out from behind gritted teeth as he stared at him with the fury that blazed hotter than the combined intensity of a thousand suns. “You had to try to take my daughter from me too?” He said more clearly this time around, ceasing his efforts to grind his teeth to more accurately convey the hatred he had for the man. He simply stared at him as he stepped closer to the windowed pane front of his cell, and the silence was infuriating. “My daughter?!” He yelled out harshly as he stepped closer, wanting nothing more than to vibrate his hand through the cell and into his chest.

“I knew you’d react like this.” Thawne began as he rolled his eyes, speaking in that calm tone that pissed him off to no end, “You’re always so emotional, which is why I had her keep all of this from you.” He couldn’t stop himself from smirking at Thawne with disdain. The nerve on this man never ceased to amaze him. “You can’t blame the little runner, Barry. She just wanted to spend some time with her dad. Don’t hold that against her.” He finished as he made eye contact with him with that far-off look in his eyes, and he returned it with the hatred in his. “Consider it a condemned man’s last request.” He had to stop himself from laughing as he stepped just a tad closer to his cell as he bore into the man’s non-existent soul with his stare.

“You always thought you were so much smarter than us, Thawne. But you lost.” He said, savoring the barely discernible annoyed look in his features that he’d come to recognize before continuing. “And now you’re finally gonna get what you deserve.” He finished saying as he backed up, taking one last look at the monster that had taken his mother from him before speeding off with a zap from the Speed Force and running back to his time to ponder the events that had transpired this night.

-

It had been several days now since he dropped Nora off in the future. He’d argued with Iris time and time again and was currently avoiding her now altogether after she admitted that the fact that Nora was working with Thawne didn’t bother her. He felt an unfamiliar anger stir inside him when she’d told him, and he had a strange urge he’d never felt before to punish her for having so little regard for his feelings. The man had killed his mother, and Iris didn’t even care. He’d had to distance himself after that. Things had cooled down, and they’d talked things over some more, but he wasn’t about to let go of that grudge. They’d have another talk about that later.

Currently he was staring at the virtual map of the city as they scanned for negative tachyons to try and track down Nora. After having a few days to himself to think clearly, he realized just how big a mistake he’d made sending her back to her time. He’d abandoned her, these were the consequences of his actions. He couldn’t believe that Nora was now using the Negative Speed Force. He didn’t exactly leave her much of a choice, but it was still hard to digest. “Come on, Nora.” He muttered under his breath to himself as he rubbed helplessly at the back of his head, needing to keep his fidgety hands occupied so he didn’t get restless and do something he’d regret. “She’s avoiding us. She’s stealing blueprints. I mean, she could really get into trouble out there.” He said worriedly as he turned to look at Sherloque and Cisco.

“But you think she’ll return if you do find her?” Sherloque inquired in his signature French accent. “After all, she has good reason to be angry at all of us.” He explained, Cisco’s face scrunching up in confusion. “Uh, what? Don’t lump me in with you two.” Cisco said, refusing to take the blame for their current situation, which fair enough. “I was pissed, she was pissed, but we’ve both had time to.. Get over it. And she’s still Nora. If I tell her she can come home again, then I’m sure she’ll stop working with Thawne.” He said, trying more to convince himself than the other two. He hoped he hadn’t messed things up completely. He turned back to the screen at the sound of the computer chirping and making a beeping sound, squinting at the triangulation it had narrowed down. That couldn’t be right.

He turned to look at Cisco for explanation. “Is that Nora?” He asked, looking for confirmation. “It has to be. She’s in the Starchives.“ Cisco answered as he looked up at him with just as much confusion on his face as he felt. But he didn’t have time to ponder what the reasoning behind this was. She was here, and he needed to find her to apologize.

Zooming off with a whoosh of his lightning, he made his way to the Starchives.

-

He came to a winding halt just a ways away down the hallway from the entrance to the Starchives, resorting to slowly walking over so as to not alert or spook her. He was filled with trepidation as he slowly made his way over, finally turning the corner to see her. **Her**. She had her back turned to him, so mustering up his courage, he spoke. “Nora.” He uttered out quietly, softly, and he saw her raise her head up a bit giving him confirmation that she’d heard him. After a moment she turned to face him, and all he could do was stare. It had only been a little under a week since he last saw her, and still he was stunned into silence by her beauty the moment he saw her. She had her mask on, along with a weird assortment of a hoodie and leather jacket. If he didn’t know any better he’d think she was here to rob them.

But she wouldn’t do that. Would she?

** Nora: **

“Hi, Dad.” She muttered out quietly. Shit, he wasn’t supposed to find her. How did he find her? She was worried that if she’d see his face again, then she might risk the entire plan just to go hug him and looking at him now – that concern wasn’t unfounded. She had to will herself to stay still as she stared at her wonderful, handsome dad. She quietly drew in a breath of air through her nose, trying not to give anything away. This was okay. This was what Plan B was for. All she needed to do was keep him distracted. “Is that Spencer Young’s phone?” He asked as he began to slowly walk closer to her. She looked down at precisely that. She was going to need it if she wanted the plan to succeed.

“What are you doing?” He asked, and she looked up again to peer over at him. She let out a morose puff of air through her nose, shaking her head. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” She answered, trying her best to keep the bitterness out of her voice to the best of her ability while still being in the right headspace to utilize the Negative Speed Force. “Nora.. I shouldn’t have left things the way that I did. All right? I want you to come home.” He pleaded with her in that beautiful voice of his. This wasn’t good. If he kept going like this it’d be impossible for her to stay mad at him, and the whole plan would be ruined. “We all do.”

She looked at him suspiciously, her fingers tightening around the phone in her hands as she tried to will herself to stick to the plan, her resolve beginning to crumble under the intensity of Barry’s caring gaze. “You just have to stop working with Thawne.” He finished, and that was enough to restore her resolve completely. Even after everything, he still didn’t trust her. He honestly still thought she’d still be working with Thawne. She narrowed her gaze at him. That was going to make this easier. “Target acquired.” She heard Ragdoll say through her earpiece. She put on a blank expression so as to not give anything away.

She tilted her head down and to the side, trying to hide her facial expression as she spoke. “Copy that.” She whispered as quietly as she could in response, but obviously not quietly enough as Barry asked her about it not a moment after. “Are you talking to someone?” He questioned in a confused tone, and she looked up at him as she pondered her options with how to proceed. She needed to leave, but now that he was here, she had no hope of outrunning him. He was way faster than her. She needed a different approach. And she knew just the one.

She scoffed at his question as if it was silly before putting on the most seductive act she could muster, giving him an enticing smile as she began to slowly walk to him with an exaggerated sway of her hips. “Of course not, daddy.” She practically purred out provocatively as she wrapped her arms around behind her from field of view to stuff the phone into her back pocket before intertwining her fingers behind her back as she strolled towards him as casually as she could. “I was just whispering to myself how glad I am that you found me.” She said in a sultry tone as she got increasingly closer.

“Nora, what are you doing?” He asked demandingly, trying his best to hide the desire evident in both his voice and eyes as his gaze flickered between her eyes and body, her act clearly having the intended effect. “I know you’re still angry at me, and I want to make it up to you. After all, you never did get the chance to punish me for what I did at the restaurant and at your workplace.” She offered flirtatiously, the Negative Speed Force enhancing and amplifying every primal urge and desire in her body, making it that much easier to play the temptress.

“Nora, I don’t want to punish you.” He said softly, taking a mechanic step backwards to try and distance himself from her, making no other attempt to halt her advance.  “Come on, daddy. I know you want to.” She countered softly as she finally closed the distance between them, peering up into his eyes as she bit lightly down on her lip to try and entice him further, knowing the effect it has on him. “Punish your slutty little girl.” She whispered alluringly, her act shocking herself just as much as him. Having no filter due to the Negative Speed Force sure made this a lot easier.

“Please, fuck me, daddy. I need it. I’ll be your whore.” She said as she stood up on her tiptoes to plant a kiss on his lips, smirking into the kiss as he didn’t pull away, clearly losing himself in it. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around him, continuing the kiss for a moment longer until she thought he was completely engrossed in it before she coaxed the lightning in her body to her hand and pulling away from the kiss to shock him with it, causing him to shudder in rhythm with the sparks before going flying backwards into a nearby wall. She sighed as he writhed in pain on the ground. She knew it wouldn’t have any permanent damage, but she knew it probably didn’t tickle either.

“Sorry, dad.” She said sincerely before speeding off while he was still incapacitated. She’d apologize to him later. She needed to move on to the next stage of the plan.

** Barry: **

It had been a very long day. In fact, it had been a very long week. But it had finally paid off. Now that they’d finally dealt with the Rogues, he now found himself in the cafeteria. Nora had just finished explaining what her plan was, to get the solar reflector weapon thingy to destroy Cicada’s dagger. God, Cisco really needed to come up with a better name for the gun than that. “Nora, why didn’t you just tell us this?” Iris asked beside him, and he sighed, knowing full well why she didn’t. “Because I wouldn’t have believed her.” He explained, “Cause it’s Thawne’s plan.” Nora pursed her lips for a moment, looking guilty before she spoke. “I knew how angry dad was. And then you came to the future without him.. I just thought he’d never believe me.” She confirmed, and he cast his gaze downwards at hearing her say it.

He felt guilty for sowing that distrust into her. Hopefully it wasn’t too late to turn it around. “Plus, I had to stay in a seriously unschway headspace to use the Negative Speed Force.” She continued, and he pursed his lips as he thought back to her beautiful lightning turned red. It gave him unpleasant memories about Thawne that sent a shiver down his spine. At least she wouldn’t need to use it anymore. “But I know now. I don’t ever want to leave you guys again. And if that means not following through with Thawne’s plan, I’m okay with that.” She said, and he nodded slowly in acknowledgement of her words as Iris cast him a regretful glance.

“I think we should use it.” He suddenly said, surprising both Iris and Nora, as well as himself. “You what?” Nora asked confusingly, followed shortly by an equally confused Iris. “Barr, are you sure?” Iris asked hesitantly, and he was quick to answer to remove doubt from both their heads. “We have to stop Cicada. I’m never gonna like where this plan comes from. But if this things works.. Sounds like our best shot.” He told them both, and the beginnings of a smile began to creep up on Nora’s face as she looked at him with bewilderment. “You really believe him?” She asked, sounding pleasantly surprised, and he shook his head at the question as he looked down for a moment.

“I believe in you, Nora.” He answered, the endearing smile that formed on Nora’s face warming his heart. “And I’m sorry that I made you feel otherwise.” He finished, bringing a wave of regret that washed away her smile. “Dad..” She muttered out quietly, stopping herself from saying something which if he had to guess likely had something to do with what happened earlier in the day. They’d talk about it in private later. “Look, I shouldn’t have left you in the future. I shouldn’t have put conditions on you coming home. I’m sorry.” He said quickly, swooping in to save her. “I love you.” He said finally with a smile she replicated. “We both do.” Iris said as she leaned closer to him, and he had to stop himself from tensing at her touch as she put her arm around him.

He was still angry at her for not caring about Thawne, but he knew he’d forgive her eventually. He just needed time to cope. “We’re never gonna leave you again, Nora. We promise.” Iris continued, and Nora’s smile grew a bit wider as she looked up at him. “Hey, could you give us a moment alone?” He tilted his head to ask Iris, hoping he’d read Nora’s look right and that she also wanted to talk to him alone. Iris nodded in response as she dropped her hand to her side with a smile. “Sure.” She said as she left the room, and he turned to face Nora who looked at him with a look full of regret. They stared at each other in silence for a moment before she finally spoke.

“Look, dad, about the things I said in the Starchives..” She began, and he shook his head, raising an open palm to cut her off. “It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean it.” He said softly, hoping it would be of some comfort, but instead she shook her head. “That’s just it.. I kind of did.” He furrowed his brows at her words, confused. She seemed to read his expression as she opened her mouth again to speak. “The Negative Speed Force doesn’t **just** make you angrier. It amplifies the most base and primal urges you have to the point that you have no filter. For Thawne it’s primarily anger, for me, it’s umm.. Something else.” She explained, a red blush beginning to seep into the color of her skin.

He nodded slowly as realization dawned over him, not knowing quite how to respond to that. He’d thought that the Negative Speed Force was what was making her say those things, and it looks like he was half-right. That was what was influencing her, but it looks like they weren’t just fabricated feelings like he’d initially thought them to be. They were the deepest, darkest secrets she had, and she’d blurted them out to him. He couldn’t imagine how vulnerable she must be feeling. She probably thought that he thought she was a freak or something. He needed to correct that. He stepped closer to her, casting a brief glance towards the exit before fixing his gaze onto her beautiful face again as he reached a hand out to cradle her flushed cheek.

She hesitantly raised her gaze to meet his, and he smiled reassuringly at her as he looked into those deep doe eyes of hers. “Nora, it’s okay. I get it. I just want you to know that I don’t think any less of you than I did before. Not at all. I still love you. All of you.” He said with unbridled sincerity, and she smiled up at him brightly in a way that made his insides flutter. A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he gave her a cheeky smirk. “Besides, it was quite hot, if I’m honest.” He admitted, and she giggled adorably at his confession. He smiled as he leaned down to place a quick peck on her lips before pulling back.

Nora let out a harmonic hum through closed lips. “Well, maybe that’s something we can explore further in the future?” She said suggestively, and he chuckled as he offered an agreeable nod in response. “Sounds good to me.” He answered softly, and he was glad to finally have things back to the way they were supposed to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it. This is the first chapter where I've disassambled the story to switch back and forth from Barry's and Nora's perspective. I felt like the chapter demanded it. I wanted to try and best display the emotional turmoil from both sides, and their reaction.
> 
> As you probably noticed, I made a few adjustments to the effects of the Negative Speed Force. I thought it'd be quite fitting for the story, and I'm looking forward to expanding further on it in the future. 
> 
> By the way, I've already written the next chapter, and it's my longest chapter yet, so you have that to look forward to. I won't post it right away, though. You'll have to wait. :)
> 
> P.S. I haven't proof-read this chapter either because I'm lazy and tired. Again, sorry not sorry.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't understand why everyone was foaming at the mouth about the finale this season. I found it to be quite underwhelming, too be honest. Still, it was good by show standards. I just thought it could be better. So I decided to try and make it better. This'll mark my first proper 'Flash' fight scene, so sorry if it's shit.
> 
> If that first paragraph wasn't a complete giveaway, this chapter takes place during the Season 5 finale. Again, no smut, just a whole lot of drama and story. Not to worry, smut lovers, there'll be plenty of that to come in the next chapters. But first, set-up! 
> 
> This is my longest chapter yet, so I hope you enjoy.

His heart was on the verge of beating through his chest with all the adrenaline pumping through his veins. This was it. The moment of truth. They were at Cicada’s hideout, the cabin in the woods, and Nora had just finished convincing young Grace to take the cure. Cisco just told them that Cicada 2.0 just escaped the force field, so time was of the essence. “Okay?” He heard Nora ask Grace in a soothing voice as she prepared to administer the meta-human cure, the young girl giving them a nod as a go-ahead. Not needing to be told twice, he watched on in trepidation as Nora injected it into Grace’s forearm, the syringe emitting a bright, blue glow from the end as it made contact with her skin before she pulled it back.

He waited anxiously for something to happen, and he didn’t have to wait long – the yellow, orange-tinted glow that shone from the gash in Grace’s forehead turning the same blue from before after barely five seconds. He let out a sigh of relief, sweeping his gaze around the house as he looked at everyone. Killer Frost seemed to look as relieved as he was feeling, a bright uncharacteristic smile on her face. Joe just looked dumbfounded, as was to be expected when there was so much as a whiff of science in the air, bless his heart. Nora looked ecstatic, seemingly very pleased with herself, as she should be. They couldn’t have pulled this off without her. Cecile was smiling, looking happy as well.

It was done. Finally. All they needed to do now was wait for the cure to finish doing its thing, and it would all finally be over. “Did it work? Guys, what’s happening?” He heard Iris ask through the comms, and he opened his mouth to answer when he felt a familiar emptiness start to take over him, and he looked down to see the orange beams stripping both him and Nora of dark matter. He looked over towards the door just in time to see the beams slip under the crack of the door.

She was here.

Before they could react, the door came falling off its hinges and collapsed against the ground with a loud thud – Joe rushing forward to intercept her as he raised his gun a second too late as Cicada 2.0 closed the distance between them and disarmed him before taking him as a human shield. He looked over as Killer Frost brought her hands back to blast her with ice, only to be thrown backwards into a wall and rendered unconscious from another one of her beams. He looked up at the sound of screaming just in time to see Joe being thrown aside and over a table. “Joe, no!” Cecile shouted as she ran forward to help, Cicada 2.0 quickly reaching for a glass bottle and lobbing it over at her, causing it to shatter on her head and make her drop to the ground from the impact.

The shock quickly wore off, and he took a step forward to try and help before Cicada thrust her hand out, sending him and Nora flying back into a wall with another beam, only this time holding them actively in place against said wall with a portion of her power. He panted heavily as his body struggled to break free from the energy holding him in place, his gaze following Cicada as she walked over to young Grace after she screamed, watching as she tore the bandage over her head. His eyes widened in shock as the blue glow in Grace’s head suddenly turned to its old yellow one.

She’d counteracted the cure somehow. He raised his chin in defiance as Cicada looked over at them with anger plastered across her facial features. “Now I’ll finish what I started.” She threatened ominously, and he gritted his teeth in anger in reply. He braced himself as she thrust her hand out again, his muscles tensing in preparation of the force that was no doubt about to be exuded upon him, only for him to look on in combined shock and horror as he saw Nora being dragged across the floor. “No, no, no!” He shouted hoarsely, his arms temporarily breaking free through sheer willpower alone for less than a second before being frozen back in place. “Nora!”

Finally Cicada stopped using her power on Nora as she knelt down beside her. It didn’t matter. Nora didn’t stand a chance against Cicada without her powers. He needed to do something. He couldn’t let this happen, not again. He stared helplessly at the scene unfold before him as Cicada hovered over his daughter with dagger in hand, stopping only to glare over at him. “You took my family away from me, Flash.” She said almost calmly if not for the clear hatred that accompanied the tone of her voice. “Now watch me take yours.” She finished saying as she looked back down at Nora and wound back the dagger.

“NOOO!” He roared, and time seemed to slow as he watched the dagger rise into the air, clenched between Cicada’s fingers. Then he realized it wasn’t a matter of perception. Time did actually slow. He suddenly felt a rush of electricity surge through him, and before he knew what was happening he was running forward at super speed and ramming into Cicada shoulder-first, causing her to go flying off Nora and sent hurling backwards at high speeds into a wall and then the floor in an instant. He stared at Cicada’s prone body, lightning crackling around his body as he watched her crawl for the dagger that she’d dropped from the initial impact.

“Barry!” He heard Cisco yell through the comms, and he looked up to see a breach open to his right and the mirror gun flying towards him. Quickly swatting it out of the air and into his hand, he aimed it at the dagger and fired, watching as what he could only describe to be a beam of folded mirrors shoot out from the gun and into the dagger. He furrowed his brows in surprise as the dagger crystallized before ever so slowly ceasing to exist, Cicada 2.0 not far behind as she started disintegrating the moment the dagger disappeared completely, roaring bestially at the top of her lungs before fading into nothing.

He blinked twice, his brain working at super speed to try and make sense of what just happened but coming up with nothing. “How did you..?” He heard Nora ask, and he whirled around to see her bewildered expression. He quickly shook his head as he looked around, checking to make sure everybody was okay at first before setting his eyes on Nora once he was satisfied with his evaluation. “I don’t know, but listen, we need to hurry. Now that the dagger’s destroyed, it’s only a matter of time before Thawne breaks out of Iron Heights. We need to get to him before that happens.” He said hastily, his mind working overtime as he tried to come up with a plan. Nora nodded slowly in agreement, and he raised a hand to his earpiece to speak into the comms.

“Cisco, the dagger’s been destroyed. Get everyone and breach over here.” He said quickly, hearing an indistinguishable sound of agreement before seeing a portal open to his left ten seconds later with Cisco, Ralph, Sherloque, and Iris jumping through it. They looked at him expectantly, and he gave them a faint nod before walking them through the plan. “Alright, here’s what we’ll do; I’ll go ahead with Nora as the vanguard to stop Thawne. Cisco, Ralph, Killer Frost – you guys take the Time Sphere and meet us there. If we can’t stop him before he escapes, we may need to set up an ambush. I leave that in your hands, Cisco.” He explained, looking around to make sure everyone was in agreement before peering over at Joe.

“Joe, you help Cecile, Iris, and Sherloque take care of Grace.” He finished saying, when he heard a scoff behind him, turning to see Iris to be the source of the sound. “No, I’m coming with you.” She said in an almost offended tone that made him want to roll his eyes, but he stemmed the urge so as to not make things worse. “Iris, no offense but I don’t think you’ll be of much help over there, alright? Thawne is a speedster. We need people with powers, not someone with a gun. You’d do the most good here.” He said as softly as he could in a commanding tone, not wanting to escalate things. “But--..” Iris began saying, and the fact that she was actually fighting this was enough to drive him over the edge.

“I don’t have time to tend to your wounded pride right now, Iris! Thawne is about to escape, there’s no time to argue.” He shouted in a tone that brokered no argument, ignoring the look of hurt that washed over Iris’ face. He wasn’t about to feel bad for employing logical strategy. His mother’s killer was about to escape, he wasn’t about to sit down and caress her cheek to try and lessen the blow of the truth, nor was he about to let her tag along on what would almost certainly be a suicide mission for her. He looked over to Nora who seemed shocked at how he’d spoken to Iris, but just like before he ignored it. There was no time to lose.

“Nora, you know what I said about not reversing time?” He asked more rhetorically than anything else, but once again she nodded in an answer. “Well forget that. If we need to, do it. Everything is riding on this.” Nora seemed surprised, and maybe a bit worried, but she only nodded silently in response, and he returned it with a nod of his own. “Good. Now let’s go.” He said before turning towards the door-less exit and speeding off with Nora behind him, launching himself into the Speed Force and traveling forward in time.

He’d stop Thawne. No matter what it took.

-

“Well, well..” Thawne said in that hushed, hoarse voice of his with his back turned to them, Nora and him having just reversed time to save the guards and run them to safety before coming back to confront him. “It appears as if someone has figured out how to reverse time.” He said as he turned around to look at them, his blood immediately beginning to boil at the apathetic look on his face signature to Thawne before it morphed into that annoying smugness once more. “Clever girl.” He said almost mockingly as he dipped his head, the faint undertone of sincerity seeping into the words enough to make him question his initial observation.

“We figured out everything.” Nora said confidently, a hint of a challenge in her voice as if to dare him to say otherwise, which of course he did. “Oh, really?” He asked with doubt in his voice, “What have you figured out?” He straightened his posture as he finally spoke up, looking Thawne in the eye as he did. “We figured out why you sent Nora back. Why you had her punch DeVoe’s satellite, to create a Cicada we could stop. Right? A dagger, we could destroy. It was the dagger that was keeping you in prison all along, wasn’t it?” He said confidently, doubt absent from his voice. He wasn’t afraid of him. Those days had long passed. He’d beaten him many times over, and he’d do it again.

“That’s right. Fifteen years. The second time I’ve been stuck somewhere against my will for fifteen years.” He answered, confirming his suspicions as he slowly circled them with a casual stroll. “Boring. Except for your visits, of course.” He continued, this time addressing Nora before turning to direct his words at him again. “You’re leaving out the most delightful part: how you both helped me escape.” He just barely caught himself in time from laughing in his face, ultimately settling for grinning amusedly instead to express his doubt. “We helped you?” He asked him humorously, finding it difficult to believe. “That’s right. When you traveled to the Time Vault, remember that?” Thawne retorted, causing the smile on his face to fade away as he racked his brain to figure out what he’d done wrong. He’d been so careful.

“Oh, we need help trying to figure out how to drain dark energy from the ‘one who got away’. Remember that?“ Thawne mockingly explained, and he closed his eyes briefly as he realized what he was referring to before opening them again to look at Nora, the guilty expression on her face breaking his heart. She’d told him about Cicada. And now she felt responsible. “When you blurted that out in the middle of the Time Vault, so that years later when I ended up with Cicada’s dagger strapped to my chest, I knew exactly what I had to do. Get Nora Allen to trust me – easy. Just like when I got you to trust me. And then everything starts falling into place, why? Because I am the only speedster who knows how to manipulate the timeline to **GET. WHAT. I. WANT!** ”

“Orchestrate the changes that I need, some of which..” He proceeded with his villainous monologue as he tore his suit ring from the necklace around his neck. “..Are happening right now to ensure one thing: That I. Go. Free.” He shifted his foot forward as Thawne started backing up ever so slightly, getting ready to run at a moment’s notice. “We don’t need a dagger to stop you.” Nora said confidently with uncharacteristic hatred in her voice that made him uncomfortable, but he kept his eyes fixed on Thawne, knowing there was only one way this was going to end. “Well then.. Let’s see just how much your father taught you.” Thawne challenged with a smile on his face before whirling around and thrusting his hand forward, the yellow suit he was familiar with ejecting out at rapid speeds, accompanied by a red crackle of lightning as Thawne ran forward into it and bolted off.

Immediately he zoomed off after him with a whoosh of his lightning, Nora running by his side as they chased after him down the streets of the future Central City at super speed. In no time at all they were both hot on his tail, much to his confusion. From how he understood it, the Negative Speed Force ate away at the regular Speed Force like a parasite, meaning he should be able to go at least as fast as he was. The fact that he was purposely slowing down was worrying. He doubted he was doing it for the safety of the environment, as he was still going fast enough to wreck everything around him – windows shattering all around them and cars doing practically a one-eighty as they slid across the ground in wake of his speed.

He decided to keep holding back his speed to stay and protect Nora until he could be certain of his plans, Thawne’s intentions becoming known to him as he saw him suddenly split into two versions of himself. Him and Nora would have to split up to chase both of them down or risk losing him. He looked to his right where Nora was staring back at him as she ran alongside him, the look on her face telling him she’d come to the same conclusion as he had, and he gave her a reluctant nod. He didn’t like it, but they didn’t have a choice. As soon as the Reverse Flash reached the next intersection the two copies of himself split up down both the left and right road, and he quickly darted after the one on the left as Nora took the right.

He needed to catch him as fast as possible so he could get back to Nora in case this was just a decoy. It didn’t surprise him that the moment it was just the two of them Thawne ‘suddenly’ got a lot faster, zooming off at a speed a thousand times faster than before, and he quickly boosted his speed to match. The chase went on for far longer than he’d have liked it too, the two of them dashing all over the city, zigzagging left and right at every junction as they occasionally collided to exchange blows before Thawne ran off again for him to follow. He couldn’t catch him. No matter how fast he ran he was always just out of reach. If one of them were in the lead, they’d stay in the lead no matter what. Their speed was perfectly matched, neither of them being able to outrun the other. It was infuriating.

‘Time for an old trick.’ He thought to himself as he ceased his efforts to chase him and instead dashed off down the street to his left, taking a few shortcuts until he saw the Reverse Flash in the horizon, and he immediately rushed forward, tackling him from the side and through a window of a nearby office building – the two of them sliding across the ground at high speeds before they hit a nearby wall. He quickly jumped to his feet before Thawne had time to recover, his yellow suited rival only having gotten up to one knee when he drove his knee into Thawne’s face, causing him to plop back against the wall again. Quickly seizing the opportunity, he grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up against the wall. “Not fast enough, Thawne.” He taunted at him, echoing the words he’d spoken to his time remnant years ago in almost the exact situation.

He coaxed the lightning into his arm to power the force of his blow as he slammed his fist into his face, not letting up as he followed up with another punch into his stomach before whirling back around with another one to his jaw with an audible crack sound as he most likely fractured it. He got lost in the haze of his fury as he started hammering his torso with a barrage of super-powered punches, feeling the bones crack under the weight of his onslaught before he wound his fist back to deliver an uppercut to his jaw, feeling it nearly dislocate against his knuckles this time. Grabbing him by the collar again, he sped off with him in his grasp to the opposite side of the building before spinning around to gather more momentum as he lobbed him like he was a ragdoll into a wall with enough force for the wall to crack.

Finally he stopped as he looked down at his handiwork – Thawne coughing and wheezing on the ground as he tried to get up onto all fours, but he kicked him in the side the moment he did so, causing him to flop onto his back with a groan. It was time to end this. He quickly knelt over him to restrain his body to the ground as he wound back his hand, vibrating it at super speed as he pulled him closer by his collar to look into his eyes that no longer glowed red. He had him. His mother’s killer at his mercy. He could finally end it, but he didn’t. He couldn’t.

He heard Thawne let out an audible groan laced with disappointment as he simply grinned up at him through gritted, bloodied teeth. “I’d hoped to keep you busy a lot longer than this, but I suppose this will have to do.” He uttered out between gasps for breath, and his eyes widened as he realized he’d fallen right into his trap. Nora. He quickly wound back his fist to knock him out when Thawne suddenly grabbed him by the shoulders and sent sparks of red lightning through his arms and into him, his body shuddering as the electricity wreaked havoc on his body until finally he was hit with one last proper surge of lightning to his chest that sent him flying backwards into the floor. He groaned in pain as he looked up at the sound of a zap of Thawne’s red lightning, and he forced himself to get up to give chase again.

The Reverse-Flash was wounded, he wouldn’t get far. Then again, so was he. But he wasn’t about to let that stop him. He needed to end this and find Nora.

** Nora: **

She split up from her dad as the two Reverse-Flash copies ran off in separate directions, taking a right to chase him down as fast as she could. He was slower than she’d anticipated. Far slower. She felt a weird sense of foreboding in her stomach. Something was wrong, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it. Her dad was counting on her. She zoomed back and forth down the streets of Central City, Thawne always just out of reach from her whenever she got close like he was toying with her. Finally he took a right around another building, and she quickly gave chase, turning the corner only to trip on something beneath her which she realized too late was Thawne’s leg, causing her to hurl forward at super speed into a car before bouncing off it into a wall. She groaned as she lifted herself onto all fours when she heard a familiar distorted whoosh of lightning, and she quickly turned around to see him standing there ominously still.

She could see the unsettling grin on his face despite the blur of his features, and the sense of foreboding intensified, feeling completely out of her depth. This was the Reverse-Flash, Flash’s arch-nemesis who not even her dad could permanently beat. What chance did she have?

No. She wasn’t going to fall prey to doubt. She could do this. She had to. “Nora, Nora, Nora..” She heard him say as she got up, sounding like a disappointed parent as he made a tsk, tsk, tsk sound. “I expected more from you.” He taunted, and she knew she shouldn’t rise to it, but she couldn’t help it. Something inside her was urging her on, and she couldn’t resist it. She gritted her teeth in anger before dashing towards him as fast as she could, throwing a punch his way, but he simply sidestepped it and whirled around to punch her in the back. It didn’t hurt nearly as much as she thought it would, the force of the impact only causing her to stumble forward a couple steps.

She quickly turned around, throwing another punch towards his head, but he pulled out of the way as casually as you’d like, as if she was moving in slow-motion to him – brushing his hand against her arm to redirect her blow away from him before retaliating with another punch to her back which sent her tumbling into a nearby car with a thud. She groaned in pain as she turned around to look at him, and again he was just standing there perfectly still, seemingly waiting on her next move. She let out a ferocious battle cry as she darted forward, throwing a series of lightning-fast punches that he dodged over and over until finally he ducked and drove his hand up to her chin in an uppercut that sent her reeling back a few steps, nearly making her stumble over her feet. She shook her head to try and clear it, and when she looked back he was gone.

Before she could think too much about it she was engulfed in a whirlwind of red lightning, and she realized he was running around her in circles. She aimlessly threw punches towards the red streaks, but her fists only caught air, and after a moment of showing off, Thawne commenced his attack. Faster than she could process she was hit all over her body by punch after punch, each hit causing her to stumble in one direction only to be hit from another to right her course. All she could do was stand there and take it as he effortlessly beat her over and over until finally he halted his assault on her, and she fell down onto her front when there was nothing to hold her up anymore. She cried out in pain, her body hurting all over. She could practically feel the bruises littering her entire body.

She struggled to move, using all her willpower to crawl over to the nearest wall to sit up against it. She looked up at where Thawne stood over her, his face ceasing to vibrate so she could properly see his face, and to her surprise there was a smidge of remorse hidden underneath the smug façade plastered over his features. “A valiant effort, Little Runner, but you never stood a chance.” He said, sighing as he walked over and grabbed her by the collar to lift her up to her feet as he held her firmly against the wall. “After all, I taught you everything you know.” She gritted her teeth in pain for a moment as she looked him defiantly in the eye. “Not everything.” She retorted before suddenly vibrating her body and phasing through him like her father taught her before turning around and ramming him into the wall he’d just been holding her against.

She quickly moved in to capitalize on his moment of weakness as he fell to his knees, punching him over the back of the head to disorient him, causing his head to slam against the wall before he fell on his back. She jumped on top of him to hold him against the ground before hitting him with lightning-powered punches across the face over and over again with both her fists. Left, right, left, right – spurts of blood splattering out from Thawne’s mouth as she beat him with the last of her energy until finally he regained his senses and moved his head out of the way from another punch. “ **Enough!”** He roared at the top of his lungs before driving his right fist into her chest with a surge of red lightning hard enough to send her flying up a few feet into the air before hitting the ground with a thud.

She didn’t even try to move, her whole body bruised and exhausted as she simply writhed in pain on the ground. She looked up to her right as Thawne got up with a bit of effort, her assault having taken a visible toll on his body as he suddenly looked tired, a wince flashing over his features until it disappeared when a smile overtook it instead. “I’m impressed, Nora. You had me on the ropes there. It’s a shame. You would’ve made a powerful ally. But you’ve too much of your father in you.” He said as he brushed himself off, wiping away a trail of blood from his mouth as he stepped closer to her and brought up his vibrating hand. “Goodbye, Little Runner.” He said sorrowfully as he wound back his hand, and she closed her eyes to prepare herself for the end.

They say your entire life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. But it wasn’t true. All she saw was her dad. The man she loved. She could picture that bright, charming smile of his – his deep, bottomless blue eyes full of life and love. She could see it all perfectly in her mind’s eye as if he was standing right there in front of her. It brought her comfort, knowing she’d acted on her desire for him. At least she’d die with no regrets. She drew a deep breath through her battered nose and braced herself for the end. Her eyes shot open as she suddenly heard a zap of Speed Force lightning, and her pupils widened in surprise as she saw her father charge Thawne into the wall before grabbing him and running him over to a nearby car to throw him into it.

She let out a sigh of relief as her dad ran over to her and knelt down beside her, his hand reaching out to cradle her cheek, and she leaned into his wonderful touch. “Nora, are you okay?” She heard him say, his voice full of heartwarming concern, and she nodded faintly in response, her chest hurting too much to speak. “Flash. You were quicker than I expected.” She heard Thawne’s distorted voice say, and she looked up and to the right where both of his copies stood side-by-side, vibrating menacingly with glowing red eyes. Her dad slowly got up as he looked over at them with clear hate dominating the features of his face. “Our race isn’t over yet, Barry. Catch me if you can.” He said, and once again both versions of himself took off in different directions.

She saw a crackle of yellow lightning in her dad’s eyes before he ran off after them. She groaned as she got up to her feet. She needed to help him. Summoning the last of her strength, she ran off after the other, chasing him all over the city until he suddenly ran up a building, and she quickly followed in pursuit. She ran as fast as possible behind him as he ran across the rooftop until diving over the edge and running down along the wall. She dashed forward with renewed vigor as the Speed Force boosted the lightning in her body, following him down the side of the building when she saw Thawne’s counterpart running up the building ahead of them with her dad not far behind.

Suddenly the Thawne her dad was chasing slid up the building while the other jumped over him, and she realized too late they’d fallen into a trap when the one sliding tripped her and the other punched her dad in the chest, causing them both to drop in freefall to the ground below. She let out a cry of pain as she made contact with the concrete pavement, the last of her strength leaving her as she laid there sprawled out on the ground. She looked up from where she was lying prone to see both copies of Thawne speed over to one another and.. merge? What? Her eyes widened in surprise as she watched it happen, and her shock was apparently very amusing to him as he grinned at the two of them smugly.

“I guess you’re not as good a teacher as I am.” He said in that distorted voice of his, and the taunt was enough to flush her body with enough anger to power her enough to stand up, slowly rising up along with her dad. “You can’t save him, Nora! No matter what you do, no matter what you try, the Flash will always vanish. That, is his legacy.” She clenched her fists at her sides, her self-doubt and anger battling for dominance as she pondered whether or not she could defeat him when she heard her comms buzz to life in her ear. “Guys, duck!” She heard the familiar voice of Cisco say as the Reverse-Flash dashed towards them.

Not needing to be told twice, she ducked while shielding her face with her arms just in case, her dad following suit as she heard a breach open up above them, and she looked up a moment later at the sound of glass shattering to see Thawne flying back as the Time Sphere collided against him. She looked behind her and smiled as she saw Ralph, Cisco, and Killer Frost jump out from the breach immediately afterwards, and she turned around with renewed confidence to face down Thawne as he started to get up. Her anger flared to life once more as the smug look on his face came back despite everything, and she just barely stopped herself from rushing forward towards him.

“Isn’t this nice? Team Flash, back together again.” He said sarcastically before pointing towards Ralph. “With a new guy. Ralph Dibny.” He continued, nodding slowly. “Welcome. You should be dead.” She fidgeted uncomfortably where she stood, not even wanting to know how Thawne knew all this, but if she had to guess, it probably had something to do with that damn Time Language of his. “Yeah, I guess we have that in common.” Ralph responded with, causing Thawne to chuckle humorlessly. “We’ll take care of that in a moment.” He said reassuringly, the smug look on his face never disappearing for even a moment.

“Frost.” He said with a tip of his head in her direction as he went down the line, Caitlin’s other personality remaining silent as her blue eyes flashed a threatening silver. A moment of silence followed as Thawne’s gaze inevitably landed on Vibe. “Cisco.” He said almost endearingly if not for the complete lack of emotion in his voice. “It warms my heart to see you again. I want to apologize for--..” He began to say as he suddenly thrust his vibrating hand out so quickly it made her flinch. “But had I not done that; you never would have had the means to become extraordinary.” Cisco simply shook his head, the goggles making it hard to determine whether or not his comments unnerved him.

“I don’t need powers for that.” He responded confidently, to which Thawne only dipped his head downwards in a moment of preparation before zooming towards them.

** Barry: **

They made quick work of the Reverse-Flash, combining their powers and talents to assault him with a combo that incapacitated him in less than thirty seconds. He smiled to himself as he got ready to run in and restrain him – Nora beating him to the punch as she suddenly rushed in and grabbed him by the neck with her right hand while tearing his cowl off his face with her left. He observed silently, not knowing what to do at first until he heard her speak. “It’s not my father’s legacy that’s gonna disappear, Thawne.” He heard her say with unnerving venom in her voice, and he took a step forward in case he needed to step in. He wouldn’t put it past Thawne to try to escape again.

“It’s **yours!** ” She roared out in a distorted voice as she wound back a vibrating hand, his eyes widening in horror as he quickly intervened before she could do something she’d regret. “Nora!” He shouted, getting ready to run forward and stop her if need be before letting out a sigh of relief as she suddenly turned around to look at him and stopped. He nodded at her in a silent gesture to stop, dropping his hands down to his side as he saw understanding wash over her eyes. “So close, Little Runner.” Thawne’s annoying smug voice began to say, but his attention was drawn elsewhere, his heart skipping a beat as he saw Nora’s hand start to glow. He’d seen that glow before. When Cicada 2.0 started to disintegrate.

“It was never going to work anyway.” He finished, horror washing over his entire being as he watched everything unfold – Nora letting go of Thawne as she backed up in shock while staring at her glowing hands, her breathing heavy and desperate. “Dad..?” She said, her voice breaking as she began to panic, her eyes looking over to him searchingly for answers he couldn’t give her. “Dad, what’s happening?!” She cried out, and he quickly closed the distance between them and grabbed hold of her tightly, afraid that she’d slip through his fingers if he didn’t. “No, no, no, no.” He muttered out in terror as he tried to make sense of what was happening.

“A new timeline is setting in.” He heard Thawne say somewhere behind them, and he raised his gaze to look up at him with a mixture of anger and shock. “What?!” He shouted, his voice cracking. “A new timeline that you created when you destroyed the dagger!” He yelled back pointedly at him. “I’m sorry, Little Runner, for trading you in like this – but I had to be sure that I could go free.” Anger washed over him in waves at his words. That monster was willing trade in the life of his daughter all to escape prison. He drew in a breath of air through his nose before charging at him faster than even Thawne could react to, ramming him into the sign behind him as he held his forearm against his throat.

“You can still save her, Barry.” Thawne groaned out, struggling to speak with his airway partially cut off by his arm. “There’s still time, you can still save her.” He pushed his arm further, putting more pressure against his throat. “How?!” He shouted in his face demandingly, his eyes boring into his. There was a moment of silence for a moment, Thawne looking like he was contemplating something, and he was just about to punch him to force him into telling him when he finally spoke. “The Negative Speed Force. She has to go there – it’s the only place immune to timeline changes. But you have to go now. You have to go, Barry! Or we lose her forever.”

He furrowed his brows at his words, confusion and suspicion battling for prominence over his face as he stared at him. “That’s right. I’ve grown fond of her too. In many ways, she’s shown me what it’s like to have a daughter.” Thawne said, the words drawing more hatred from him than he ever knew he was capable of possessing, his arm jutting forward further by its own volition. He should end him while he could. “See you in our next crisis.” Thawne taunted again, and he just barely stopped himself from snapping his neck right there and then. His moment’s hesitation was enough for the Reverse-Flash to create a window of opportunity, abruptly throwing him off and speeding away before he could react. It didn’t matter, he didn’t even stop to look where he went.

Quickly turning around, he zoomed off with Nora, running down a few streets until he saw a portal open up ahead to what he assumed was the Negative Speed Force, and he quickly jumped in behind Nora after she ran through. He wasn’t sure how to help her. All he could do was follow Nora as they ran through the red, dark tunnel. “I can’t do this!” Nora shouted from beside him, misery and exhaustion evident in the tone of her voice. “Yes you can, yes you can. You have to, all right?!” He shouted back, unable to keep the fear from his voice as he ran alongside her. “No!” She yelled back in response, her voice becoming more and more distorted. “Just hold on a little longer!” He pleaded as he looked over at her, her once beautiful yellow lightning now a menacing red.

“No, dad, I can’t!” She shouted, her voice nearly indistinguishable at this point, and his eyes widened in horror as he saw her eyes glow red like Thawne’s. “Nora!” He begged, but she shook her head as she started to slow down. “I can’t!” His heart plummeted to his stomach as he saw her dart off to the left and exit the Negative Speed Force, and he quickly ran after her back to where they’d left, grinding to a halt in front of her as he looked at her with desperate tears in his eyes. “Nora, what are we doing?!” She shook her head as he stepped closer to him, looking him in the eye. “It’s too late.” She replied, and he mimicked her earlier shake of her head with one of his own.

“What? No it’s not, we gotta go back!” He said, refusing to believe that this was the end. He wouldn’t let that happen. He couldn’t. “Dad, no!” She pleaded back, and he stepped closer, putting a hand on either of her arms. “Nora, please, we have to go ba--..”

“ **NO!** ”

He nearly flinched as her eyes flashed red again for a moment, but he didn’t, keeping his hands on her as he stared into the familiar brown eyes as they returned once more. “If I go back in, the Negative Speed Force will be a part of me forever. It’s making me like Thawne! Full of anger and hate. I-I don’t want that to be my legacy. This is all on me. All of it. My mistake. And I am not gonna make another one.” He stared at her speechless, completely lost for words as cracks of blue-white light began to appear across her body again. “Sometimes all you can do is live with the consequences.” She said softly, echoing the words he’d spoken to her a long time ago before leaning in and wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

He stood utterly still for a moment as he closed his eyes to stem the flow of tears, a gradual acceptance washing him as they held one another until he was overcome with a sudden new surge of defiance.

“Not this time.”

Yellow lightning crackled around him as he tapped into the Speed Force, time stopping altogether as everyone around him including Nora froze in place. He quickly picked her up in his arms and dashed away faster than he’d ever gone before, zooming through the streets of Central City as he allowed every bad thing that had ever happened to him wash over him. His mother’s murder. His dad’s murder. Thawne. Zolomon. Savitar. All the people that had counted on him and died, Cicada breaking Nora’s back – all of it. He absorbed it all as he created his own portal to the Negative Speed Force and launched himself into it. If Nora couldn’t withstand the toll of tapping into the Negative Speed Force, then he’d bear the burden for her. He couldn’t lose her. He wouldn’t.

He could feel the Negative Speed Force twisting him inside out as he ran, corrupting his entire being with every step he took, and he let out a ferocious roar as he zoomed forward with a new burst of speed, a trail of lightning behind him.

Red lightning.

** Nora: **

She brought her hand up to shield her eyes from the white, piercing bright light above her, blinding her completely as she blinked rapidly to try and make out her surroundings, the stinging pain in her eyes eventually subsiding until she finally realized where she was.

S.T.A.R. Labs.

She was in the medical bay. She looked around, feeling an uncomfortable sense of Déjà vu wash over her from when Cicada had broken her back and she’d woken up on this exact bed with her mom and dad sitting next to her. With that in mind, she tilted her head to the left to see if they were there, only spotting her mom who had her face buried in her hands. “Mom..?” She muttered out with surprising difficulty, her body still hurting from the treatment the Reverse-Flash had given her. Iris seemed to perk up at the sound of her voice as she looked up at her, revealing her exhausted features and the bags under her eyes as if she hadn’t slept in days. “Nora?” She uttered hesitantly in a question, her voice a blend of disbelief and happiness.

“What happened..?” She asked as she stared at her mom with her half-lidded gaze, her eyes threatening to close under the weight of the exhaustion she was feeling. She let out an ‘oof’ as the air was knocked out of her when her mom suddenly jumped up and enveloped her in a hug. She winced slightly at the pressure, which her mom seemed to pick up on as she immediately retreated, leaving only her hand lingering on her shoulder as she looked down at her. “Sorry.” She said apologetically just above a whisper, her voice tender.

She shook her head faintly. “It’s alright..” She reassured her quietly. “But what happened?” She repeated, “All I remember was telling dad I didn’t want to go into the Negative Speed Force, and then.. Nothing.”  Her mom gave her a warm smile as she drew her chair closer to the bed and sat down, Iris’ hand snaking forward to hold her hand. “Your dad. He saved you.” Iris explained, and she furrowed her brows in confusion. “How?” It was all she could utter as she looked to her mom for an explanation who took a deep breath before continuing. “He took you into the Negative Speed Force.” Her heart dropped to her stomach. If her dad had taken her into the Negative Speed Force, then that meant..

“He tapped into the Negative Speed Force?” She said, absolutely astonished, and Iris simply nodded in response. “To save you.” Her mom confirmed, and she had to remind herself to keep breathing so she wouldn’t pass out from lack of oxygen. He’d exposed himself to the effects of the Negative Speed Force for her. She wasn’t sure whether she should be relieved or horrified. That would depend on the answer to her next question. “Is he alright?” She asked, trepidation coloring the tone of her voice as she waited for the answer with bated breath. The look of hesitation that passed over her mom’s face did not inspire confidence.

“Yeah, he’s.. He’s okay. He’s just a bit worn out. I think he just needs time to recover from everything that’s happened.” She said empathetically, and she nodded slowly at her mom’s words as the cogs in her brain whirled to process what she’d just told her. “Where is he?” She asked with renewed determination. She needed to go find him. She knew how jarring it was to use the Negative Speed Force. He’d need all the comfort he could get. “He’s in the lounge, on the balcony, I think. He hasn’t really talked to anyone since he got back.” She nodded as she threw the cover off her and sat up on the bed. “Woah take it easy, Nora. You’ve been out all day. Exactly twenty-four hours. We were worried sick about you. We thought maybe Thawne had been lying.”

She shook her head, refusing to be stopped from seeing her dad. “I’m fine, mom. I just want to see dad. He’ll want to know I’m alright.” She said as she stood up, wobbling a bit on her feet until she straightened herself up with her mom’s help. “Alright well, just take it slow. We don’t need you falling on your face. No running.” Iris said, and she nodded in agreement. “No running.” She confirmed to try and ease her worries, and if the nod she gave her was anything to go by she’d say she succeeded. “Also, try to avoid talking to the Legends. The team called them up and told them what happened to try and figure out what effect it’d all have, and they weren’t very happy. Kept saying something about you being a time aberration or something, but Barry shut them all up.”

She nodded slowly; a bit taken back by what she’d just been told, but she didn’t have time to think about it. She needed to find her dad, so she just nodded her agreement and began to make her way to the lounge. Before long she was turning the corner and entering the lounge, and her breath caught in her chest as she saw her dad hunched over the railing of the balcony, looking deep in thought. She nervously intertwined her fingers in front of her as she slowly walked over to him, a strange feeling of anxiety fluttering in her stomach she didn’t know what the cause for was. She drew a deep breath to steel herself before continuing her advance until she entered the doorway, her dad seemingly not hearing her footsteps as he continued to stare forward into the distance.

She gingerly stepped next to him, extending her hand out to wrap around the railing of the balcony as she looked at him. He still didn’t seem to notice her, the faraway look in his eyes making her worried. She leaned a bit further into his line of sight, nearly flinching as he abruptly perked up, looking startled. “Hey.” She said softly as she smiled at him, not wanting to be the first one to move. “Nora?” He muttered in surprise, and she simply nodded in confirmation. Suddenly he moved so quick she thought he might’ve been moving at super speed if not for the lack of lightning, pulling her against him and wrapping her in a tight hug which she eagerly returned. They stayed like that for a while, enjoying the embrace in complete silence with only the distant hum of the city nightlife beneath them to fill the air.

Finally they broke apart to look at each other, the forced smile he was giving her pulling at her heartstrings as she reached a hand up to cradle his cheek. “Hey.. Are you okay?” She whispered softly, almost afraid to hear the answer, but he nodded slowly in response. “Yeah, of course. It’s just.. All still a bit raw.” She nodded in understanding, knowing full well what he meant. Opening yourself up to the Negative Speed Force took quite a toll on your psyche. Raw nerves were definitely to be expected. She leaned in to place a chaste kiss on his lips before pulling back again, her thumb brushing against his cheek in repeated swipes like he so often did to her. She smiled as he leaned into her touch before tilting his head to place a kiss on her palm.

“I can’t believe you did that.” She muttered softly under her breath, and he sighed in exasperation as he looked into her eyes with a look that made her heart skip a beat. “I couldn’t lose you.” He said quietly, his voice cracking at the words as he spoke them. Her eyes began to well with tears and she quickly wrapped him in another hug, closing her eyes as she held him close. “It’s okay. It’s over. Everything’s alright now.” She hummed reassuringly, feeling a pang of worry at the complete lack of response.

“Isn’t it..?” She whispered out worryingly, the silence that passed between them unnerving her a tad until he nodded against her. “Yeah. Everything’s alright.” He said softly, setting her at ease. They continued to embrace one another for a moment longer, neither of them wanting to let the other go until finally her dad pulled away to look at her, and she shot him a warm smile which he returned. “You know, I could really go for some Big Belly Burger right about now.” She said with mirth in her voice, and he chuckled softly before giving her a nod. “Big Belly Burger it is.” He said amusedly, and she grinned up at him.

“Race you there?” She said suggestively, but he quickly shook his head. “I think we’ve done enough running for a day. Go get your mom and we’ll go there together, alright? I’ll catch up with you.” He replied, and she couldn’t argue with his logic. She was absolutely exhausted, and she did promise her mom she wouldn’t run today. “Alright. We’ll meet at the elevator.” She agreed, and he nodded in acknowledgement of her words. Leaning in to place one last chaste kiss on his lips, she turned around and walked away with a spring in her step. She was pretty happy. She had her dad, and she hadn’t been erased from existence, so it was hard to complain.

Most of all she was glad there were no more secrets between them. They could finally move forward.

Together.

** Barry: **

His smile disappeared the moment Nora was out of sight, and he turned around to lean over the balcony with a sigh. He took a deep breath to try and calm his rising anxiety. Finally he looked down at his hands, his body filled with trepidation as he coaxed his lightning to his fingertips, his heart skipping a beat as he saw the electricity crackle around his hand in volatile sparks.

Red sparks. His lightning was still red.

Immediately he stopped channeling his lightning and looked up at the night sky as he breathed in the cool air, taking a moment to himself until he’d calmed down again and then turned around and began to make his way to the elevator, the memory of glowing red eyes haunting him as he went to meet up with his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ta-da. Roll credits. The end. 
> 
> Nah, I'm just kidding. It's just a good old fashioned cliffhanger, everybody. I hope you liked the chapter; I wanted to set things up before we get into the big smut stuff, and I like having some semblance of plot in my stories. Smut for smut sakes isn't really my forte. That's why I wanted to wait for Barry to largely be under the influence of the effects of the Negative Speed Force before I dove too deep into the smut, since it'll make for an interesting plot point going forward and rationalize any 'OOC' behavior in the future.
> 
> So, from here on out I have some big decisions to make. Firstly, I am undecided whether or not to split the next chapters into a separate story and make it a series, or just continue writing under this one. I feel the synopsis of this story is a bit redundant going further, so I think it could use some renovation, so to speak.
> 
> Second, I'd considered branching more relationship tags into the story now that Barry will be corrupted by the Negative Speed Force. I think Barry without a filter would be hard-pressed not to act on his urges towards the other women of the Flash universe. I'm not sure, however. Let me know what you think.
> 
> Anyway, last but not least, I wanted to make one thing clear; I do not know when the next chapter will happen. I have laid out plot points and started writing it, I'm about 10 pages in, and by the looks of things it'll probably be as long as this chapter, if not longer. Don't quote me on that, though. But now that I've run out of show material it's going to basically be all free form writing on my end which means it won't be as easy to release it speedily. I will not be deterred by this, however, as I'm looking forward to see where I take things after this.
> 
> That being said, I do not have an ETA on the next chapter, nor will I give one. We'll have to wait and see how things pan out. I have an important test coming up, so I don't know how much time I'll have on my hands to write. But in any case, I hope you liked the chapter. Oh, and feel free to leave a story title idea if I do make it into a new story.


	7. Chapter 7

Not a real chapter, but don't worry, I'm not leaving you people hanging. I've branched the story into a series as I felt the summary for the last one was a bit redundant by this point. Since I don’t know AO3’s policy and notification system for this sort of thing, I thought I’d post a notice just in case. I’ve already posted the next chapter to the story under part 2 of the series, so you can just go ahead and scroll up and click ‘next work’ to take you there.

  
Alternatively, for those who are as lazy as me, just go ahead and [click here.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20106130/chapters/47627845)


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